Congressional Open URL Redirectors
Spam: Matthew Wilson at Boomer Consulting has been having a field day — it looks like some smart google hacking has thrown up some doozies of places that should have fixed this by now:
and my favourites:
Of course, all of these are immaterial to SpamAssassin — we catch spammers using them anyway. But still, a surprising number of these out there.
Tags: boomer, com, consulting, day, field, google, gov, house, microsoft, spam, webmasterworld
Bad Blogger.com Security Model
Security: Hey user auth systems! If you’re going to require me to sign in, and publish my login as a signature to prove that I’m ‘me’, please do me a favour — don’t delete the account if it’s been ‘inactive’, and allow anyone to re-register that name without my knowledge!
I just tried to leave a comment on a Blogger.com weblog, to find that my user account at Blogger had been deleted. Re-creating a new account with the same name wasn’t a problem – the previous account data had been simply deleted outright. (Presumably they don’t do this to people with a Blogger.com weblog — I hope.)
The risks of this are pretty clear; given that I’d already established an identity (at least in comments on certain Blogger weblogs) as ‘justinmason23′, if an attacker were to have re-registered that identity before I did, they could impersonate me.
Tags: account, auth, blogger, com, hey, identity, login, name, security, user, weblog
MS Patents sudo(8)
Patents: The varchars.com scraped RSS feeds now include new patent grants and applications by certain companies! Interesting, although given that most developers are advised not to look, not advisable ;)
However, I glanced at the MS one — and immediately spotted this gem: US Patent 6,775,781, filed by Microsoft, is a patent on the concept of ‘a process configured to run under an administrative privilege level’ which, based on authorization information ‘in a data store’, may perform actions at administrative privilege on behalf of a ‘user process’.
This, and the patent claims, perfectly describe the operation of sudo, fundamentally as it’s operated since running on a 4.1BSD VAX-11/750 in 1980.
20 years head start on a patent application — surely that must qualify as prior art ;)
Tags: authorization, com, concept, gem, level, microsoft, patent, patents, privilege, process, rss
If taint.org was spam
Spam: ever wondered what this weblog would look like if it was spam? wonder no more. (via crummy.com)
SpamAssassin now an Apache TLP!
Spam: SpamAssassin is now officially an Apache top-level project! InternetNews.com coverage:
The Apache Software Foundation is taking the spam fight to a new level – literally — with the promotion of its Spam Assassin project to top-level status.
Hooray ;)
Tags: apache, com, coverage, fight, foundation, internetnews, project, software, spam, spamassassin
Irish Dating Site, and TheyWorkForYou.com
Web: Bernie Goldbach points to a site that’s news to me: AnotherFriend.com. It’s an Irish dating site.
I’ve had the odd discussion comparing dating culture in the US (organised ‘dating’) and Ireland and the UK (where it’s a lot more casual), and I must say, I was really convinced that the Friendster/craigslist-style organised, web-mediated dating just wouldn’t fly.
Seems I was wrong! Right now, there’s 157 people online on the site, with a good half of those being logged-in, chatting users, and about 75% of those in turn being premium, paying members. Wow, not bad.
Politics: TheyWorkForYou.com is a triumph. The most incredibly detailed, and web-aware, hypertextual database of political activity I’ve seen yet. The web-awareness — full of scraping, links, RSS and even community — is what makes it amazing; the concept of being able to read news of your representative’s latest speeches and voting record in your RSS aggregator is incredible. We need to get this out there for every country in the world.
It certainly beats Today in Parliament, that’s for sure ;)
Aside: nice choice of username for the ‘Site News’ weblog:
Some sites linking to this entry
An error occurred: Connection error: Access denied for user: ‘fawkesmt’@'localhost’ (Using password: YES)
Wierd: Incredible footage (WMV stream) of a guy who went nuts, converted a caterpillar earthmover into what is essentially a tank, and went on a GTA-style rampage through the streets of Granby, 15 miles west of Denver, Colorado. In the process, he destroys the local bank, the newspaper, and several stores, seemingly working on the basis of (several) personal grudges.
Tags: anotherfriend, com, culture, discussion, error, friendster, lot, news, rss, site, web
Bloom Filters
Code: A very good intro to Bloom Filters at perl.com by Maciej Ceglowski.
Strikes me as something that might be very applicable to the SpamAssassin auto-whitelist…
Tags: bloom, code, com, filters, intro, perl, something, spamassassin
Egosurfing images.google.com
GMail Usability
MS’ ‘Caller ID For E-Mail’ Specs
Spam: the Caller-ID specs are now up on www.microsoft.com. Note patent license.
Orkut Down for Tweakage
Social: orkut - under construction: ‘ Based on your suggestions, I’m taking orkut.com back to the lab for some fine-tuning and improvements. It will likely take a few days to finish them. None of your data will be lost and I should have some nice surprises for you when I bring it back online. I’ll email you when it’s ready and running again.’
Probably taken offline mainly to deal with this wee buglet ;)
Orkut.com is interesting on a few levels:
the Google link paid off massively. It has a lot more geek cred than it would have had otherwise (especially given the in-my-opinion fugly MSN-style design, and — ugh — .aspx URLs ;)
As far as I can see, it’s not really Google-affiliated; just written by a Googler in his spare time. The Google names I know don’t seem to be in there, and no games of ‘Six Degrees of Sergei Brin’ are possible ;)
- the invite-only startup gave it some good initial buzz.
But IMO it needs a few tweaks: the main one IMO is export. Friendster, Tribe.net et al all give the impression that they want to lock you in the trunk so they can ‘monetize’ your network, or something. If that’s the way it’ll work, great, it’s a toy, and that’s all they’re getting from me.
These things are just toys until I can get my data back out again
in a machine-readable format (FOAF, RDF, etc.) I want to augment it
with other social data; like an
anti-spam web of trust based on who I know, and being able to graphviz
my social network, dammit! ;)
Brian McCallister has a few more useful comments.
Puzzles: a UK crypto guy says the Voynich manuscript is gibberish and reckons he’s figured out how it was made. ‘They have shown that its various word, which appear regularly throughout the script, could have been created using table and grille techniques. The different syllables that make up words are written in columns, and a grille - a piece of cardboard with three squares cut out in a diagonal pattern - is slid along the columns. The three syllables exposed form a word. The grille is pushed along to expose three new syllables, and a new word is exposed.’
Spam: NY Times on the Spam Conf 2004.
Tags: com, construction, fine-tuning, google, grille, imo, lab, network, orkut, social, word
SpamAssassin wins twice in OSDir.com’s 2003 Editor’s Choice Awards in Open Source (fwd)
SpamAssassin: The 2003 OSDir.com Editor’s Choice Awards in Open Source. Woo!
Editor’s Choice for Best Application (Top 5 environments):
Email: SpamAssassin (Double Winner)
SpamAssassin keeps keeps me out of Anger Management classes. If you are not running SpamAssassin get thee to SpamAssassin.org. Now. If you need your friendly neighborhood system administrator to do it.. start sending flowers or Scotch today with a nice little note asking to get SpamAssassin going medieval on your mail server.Miscellaneous Editor’s Choice:
Can’t Live Without: SpamAssassin
The fact that this doesn’t have to be explained says it all.
Tags: application, awards, choice, com, editor, open, osdir, source, spamassassin, woo
Terriblismophile
Green: WorldChanging.com brings a new word:
The Renaissance Italians had a term, ‘terriblisma,’ by which they meant the strange, gratified awe one feels when beholding dreadful disasters and acts of God from afar. The term may be six hundred years old, but the sentiment could not be more contemporary. In fact, terriblisma is a quite native 21st Century aesthetic.
So there it is — I’m a terriblismophile. (That’s probably not a valid word, combining Italian and Greek, but hey…) Judging by this entry, marathon-running blogger Maciej Ceglowski may just be one too.
One of the things on my to-do list has been to see a live volcano; still haven’t managed it yet. Then, possibly, a tornado. I’ve also been meaning to type in and post a couple of snippets from Mike Davis’ Ecology of Fear (and judging from that book, a tornado in SoCal may not be out of the question). Also, the surreality of the wild fires was pretty enjoyable from my comfy well-out-of-danger’s-way vantage point. No question — I’m a terriblismophile.
Tags: awe, com, green, question, renaissance, term, terriblisma, terriblismophile, tornado, word, worldchanging
Various Monday Morning quickies
Anthems: The Chechen Nation Anthem. This has got to be the scariest anthem I’ve ever heard, what with the she-wolves whelping and what not.
Spam: MAPILab.com: Microsoft Outlook 2003 Spam Filter: Under the hood. Exhaustive!
Wired News: U.K. Plans to Extradite Spammers. Can’t see how this’ll work, given that spamming just isn’t seen by prosecutors as a high-cost crime. (Found via SpammerHunters.com).
Food: Blooper proves bum deal for Sharwoods (Guardian): ‘When Sharwoods launched its latest product range earlier this month, it promised the ‘deliciously rich’ sauces based on a traditional northern Indian method of cooking would ‘change the way consumers make curry’. What it failed to foresee was that ‘bundh’ in Punjabi has an altogether less savoury meaning
- the nearest English translation being, to put it bluntly, ‘arse’.’
(Thanks Lean!)
Plus, a bonus: a brief history of advertising mistranslations, some doubtless ULs.
Patents: MS Office 2003 XML Reference Schema Patent License (via patents at aful dot org):
Microsoft may have patents and/or patent applications that are necessary for you to license in order to make, sell, or distribute software programs that read or write files that comply with the Microsoft specifications for the Office Schemas.
Tags: anthem, anthems, chechen, com, microsoft, nation, office, patent, scariest, sharwoods, spam
WorldChanging.com
Environment: WorldChanging.com. Bruce Sterling writes:
‘Worldchanging’ is very much the same work the Viridian movement has been doing since 1998, only now (thanks God!) it’s being done by a relatively organized team of capable activists instead of by some wacky novelist in his spare time! So go make them famous. Do it now.’
The Viridian movement is Bruce’s baby, best summed up, I reckon, as ‘electronic green‘.
Anyway, WorldChanging.com is a full-blown MovableType weblog, RDF and all, frequently updated and smartly written. Sign up!
Tags: baby, com, environment, god, movement, novelist, team, time, viridian, work, worldchanging
SF film tip: ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’
Movies: Inhabitants of San Francisco! Or people nearby who fancy watching a great documentary! According to the SFGate.com Morning Fix, the Castro theater will be showing the amazing documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised between Oct 24-30.
I’ve blogged this before, but quick recap: it’s an incredible movie documenting what happened in the Venezuelan Presidential Palace on April 11th 2002, when President Hugo Chavez was briefly deposed by a coup d’etat. It covers the entire period, and amazingly has pretty-much full access to everything that Chavez, his cabinet, and his loyal soldiers did and said. A sample:
‘On the day of the coup, we only began realising what was actually going on when the state TV signal was cut. Up until then, people had been shot and there was a terrible sense of confusion, but still the reality of what was taking place hadn’t exactly sunk in. Then later that night, the media started saying that Chavez had fled to Cuba and that he had resigned, when in fact he was in the palace — and so were we. It became clear then that something very calculated and sinister was unfolding.’
Really, it’s well worth watching. Due to its comments on the actions, and spin, of the current US administration, Harry Knowles reckons it’ll never get a public release in the US outside a film festival (and I’d agree) — so you’re going to have to watch it in a lefty theater or nothing.
(BTW the website needs some work though — it uses the horrible ‘reinventing the scrollbar’ DHTML trick, urgh.)
Tags: com, coup, documentary, fix, inhabitants, morning, movies, palace, sfgate, theater, watching
Art-Market, ArtPrice, Servergroup, Groupe Serveur etc. spamhaus
So a few months ago, I setup a cookie-producing mailto honeypot page at foojlist.php.
Well, I just got the first bite — and it’s a live one. It’s our old
friends at artprice.com. They’re a French spamhaus, operating from
Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or, France, and reports claim that it’s all the
work of one guy — Thierry Ehrmann.
There’s lots of reports in USENET, and here’s their SBL listing, noting ‘extremely intense french spam source.’
This posting to NANAE notes that Colt France are not responding to complaints about them, either — but notes that ‘in France collecting e-mail addresses with the intention to send commercial mails without permission of the holders can be punished by law (article 226-18 of the Code Pe’nal - up to 5 years of prison or 300.000 euro)’. Interesting!
Full details of the spam, and the access_log entries from their web-scraper’s accesses, are attached.
Here’s the spam:
Received: from mail1.artmarket.com (mail1.artmarket.com [194.242.43.183]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) wixh ESMTP id h8SLJZV12710 for < ( email addr deleted ) @fooj.jmason.org>; Sun, 28 Sep 2003 22:19:35 +0100 Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 22:19:35 +0100 Message-Id: (spam-protected) From: A R T (spam-protected) To: < ( email addr deleted ) @fooj.jmason.org> Subject: [adv] 1700 - 2003 Story of the Art Market MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit <HTML><HEAD> <TITLE>Artists search engine by Artprice TM - copyright Artprice.com</TITLE> <META http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1”> <META name=”UNSUB” content=”<!–26398522_1–>”> <META name=”ROBOTS” content=”NOINDEX”> </HEAD> <BODY bgcolor=”#FFFFFF” text=”#000000”> <TABLE cellspacing=”0” cellpadding=”0” align=”center” border=”0”> <TR> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/affil.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/search.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/fs.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ind.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://www.artistbiography.com/”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/bio.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/sig.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://web.artprice.com”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/Home.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/G.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ps.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/C.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://web.artprice.com”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/Home.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/I.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/sig.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/fs.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/C.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/I.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>A</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>R</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/HelpBlack.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/search.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/AMI/AMInsight.gif”></TD> </TR> <TR>” <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Shop.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://web.artprice.com/corporate/EN/Visite/pages/nb.htm”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/HelpBlack.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>T</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/today.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/E.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/F.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>P</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/search.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/C.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ind.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Shop.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/F.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/G.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ind.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Home.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/today.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/D.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/F.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/sig.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/A.gif”></TD> </TR> <TR>” <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/B.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/D.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/G.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/H.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/I.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/C.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>R</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/I.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Account.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/C.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ind.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>I</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/contact.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://web.artprice.com/corporate/EN/Visite/pages/3818.htm”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/HelpBlack.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/I.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/today.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>C</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/L.gif”></TD> </TR> <TR>” <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/D.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>E</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>C</B></TD> <TD align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>O</B></TD> <TD align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B>M</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Shop.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ind.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/G.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Home.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/search.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/sig.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Home.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/fs.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/contact.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/I.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/contact.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ps.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/H.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Account.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/search.gif”></TD> </TR> <TR>” <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/B.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/C.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/bio.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Shop.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Account.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/today.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/affil.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Account.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://www.artprice.net”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/B.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/L.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/F.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/bio.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Shop.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/B.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><A href=””http://www.art-online.com”> </A></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/C.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Home.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ps.gif”></TD> </TR> <TR>” <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/F.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/fs.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://www.americanartists.com/”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/bio.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD align=”center” bgcolor=”#000000”><B><FONT color=”#FF0000”>A</FONT></B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/B.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Home.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://web.artprice.com/corporate/EN/Visite/pages/arch02.htm”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/HelpBlack.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Shop.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/affil.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B><FONT color=”#FF0000”>R</FONT></B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/sig.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Account.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/I.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B><FONT color=”#FF0000”>T</FONT></B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/C.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/affil.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://web.artprice.com/corporate/EN/Visite/pages/3834.htm”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/HelpBlack.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/H.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Shop.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/search.gif”></TD> </TR> <TR>” <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/bio.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ps.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center” bgcolor=”#FF0000”><B><FONT color=”#000000”>M</FONT></B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/C.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/fs.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ps.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ps.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B>A</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ps.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B>R</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/B.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/F.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B>K</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ps.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://www.artprice.de”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/Home.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Shop.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B>E</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/B.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ind.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ps.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B>T</B></TD> <TD><A href=””http://web.artprice.com/corporate/EN/Visite/pages/jb02.htm”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/HelpBlack.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/contact.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/G.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ind.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/contact.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ind.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/map.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/affil.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B>C</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/D.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/sig.gif”></TD> <TD><A” href=””http://www.13thcenturyart.com/”><IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/HelpBlack.gif’” border=”0”></A></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Home.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/E.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/affil.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B>O</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Account.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/D.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/J.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/ind.gif”></TD> <TD” align=”center”><B>M</B></TD> <TD><IMG src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/Mediums/I.gif”></TD> <TD><IMG” src=””http://web.artprice.com/img/bio.gif”></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <BR><BR><BR> <TABLE” border=”0” bgcolor=”#FFFFFF” align=”center”><TR> <FORM method=get action=”http://web.artprice.com/en/artistsearch.aspx”><TD> <A href=””http://web.artprice.com”> <IMG” src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/Img/B/artprice_140.gif’” align=”absmiddle” border=”0” alt=”artprice”></A> <INPUT type=text name=searcharti size=39> <INPUT type=submit value=”OK” style=”CURSOR: hand”> <INPUT type=hidden name=l value=en> </TD> </FORM> </TR></TABLE> <CENTER> <FONT size=”1” face=”Arial”> THE WORLD LEADER IN ART MARKET INFORMATION - WELT-LEADER IN KUNSTMARKT-INFOS <BR>LEADER MONDIAL DE L’INFORMATION SUR LE MARCHE DE L’ART</FONT> </CENTER> <BR><BR><BR> <BR><BR><BR> <BR><BR><BR> <BR><BR><BR> <BR><BR><BR> <BR><BR><BR> <BR><BR><BR> <TABLE cellspacing=”3” background=”http://web.artprice.com/Img/B/pixBl.gif”> <TR> <TD> <FONT face=”Arial” size=”1”> <b>To remove</b> your email: (spam-protected) please click below:<br><a href=”‘http://list.artaddiction.com/?m=(email_address_hidden)%40fooj.jmason.org’> (spam-protected) </a><br> In” case the above link does not work you can go to<br> http://list.artaddiction.com/<br> or reply to this message as it is.<br> Please allow us 72 H for your e-mail to be removed.<br>Thank you for your co-operation. </FONT></TD> <TD><FONT face=”Arial” size=”1”> <b>Pour désinscrire</b> votre email : (spam-protected) cliquez ci-dessous :<br><a (spam-protected) Si le lien ci-dessus ne fonctionne pas, vous pouvez aller sur :<br> http://list.artaddiction.com/ <br>ou répondez svp à ce message sans en modifier le contenu.<br> Votre désinscription sera effective dans les 72 H.<br>Merci de votre coopération. </FONT></TD> </TR><TR><TD colspan=”2”><FONT size=”1” face=”Arial”>En conformité avec la loi 78-17 du 6/1/78 (CNIL), vous pouvez demander à ne plus figurer sur notre fichier de routage.<BR> <IMG src=”‘http://web.artprice.com/img/LogoArtp_90.jpg’” border=”0” align=”absmiddle”>IX :28<BR> </FONT><FONT face=”Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif” size=”1”>Artprice.com - Domaine de la Source BP 69 - F-69270 St Romain au Mont D’or - RCS : 411 309 198</FONT></TD> </TR></TABLE></BODY></HTML>
And, after decoding the address it was sent to, here’s the access_log entries the address was scraped with:
194.242.43.13 - - [26/Sep/2003:21:09:34 +0100] ”GET /foojlist.php HTTP/1.0” 200 4066 ”-” ”Art-Online.com 0.9(Beta)”
That’s one line from their scraping run, during which they scraped every single page on spamassassin.taint.org, including tar and zip archives, CGI scripts, everything — making 534 requests between 21:07:31 and 21:16:49.
Tags: artprice, com, content, html, img, mail, org, spam, src, text
Top Firebird tip
Mozilla Firebird has this feature that obviously seemed like a good idea, but unfortunately isn’t really — automatic image resizing.
Well, while surfing about looking at the next-gen Bluecurve screenshots, I came across a screenshot with a link to linuxart.com, which had a top tip:
- type ‘about:config’
- scroll down to browser.automatic_image_resize, double click, change to ‘false’
Hey presto!
Tags: bluecurve, com, feature, firebird, idea, image, link, linuxart, mozilla, screenshot
Monday morning quickies - gifts patented
FFII have discovered that Amazon.com have received a patent from the EPO ‘which covers all computerised methods of automatically delivering a gift to a third party’. It seems to cover Amazon’s ‘One-Click’ ordering system, as well.
Wierd: Tiny town to reek of sex. Don’t get excited — it’s only moth pheromones. (via Peter Darben on the forteana list.)
Medical slang, including:
- ATS: Acute Thespian Syndrome
- Departure lounge — Geriatric ward
- DBI: Dirtbag index (calculated by the number of tattoos on the body multiplied by number of recent missing teeth, to estimate days without a bath)
- NFN: Normal for Norfolk
- Pumpkin positive: When you shine a penlight into the patient’s mouth and his brain is so small his whole head lights up
- PFO: Pissed, fell over
- Scepticaemia: What doctors develop with experience
And — finally! — an explanation for that ER term:
-
Stat: Immediately, shortened from the Latin statim
Linux: GrokLaw on SCO and Sun’s Linux indemnification FUD. Well worth a read – especially the bit where Mr. GrokLaw finds an old SCO contract that does include indemnification terms. Indemnification, that is, with some pretty serious get-out clauses and stings in the tail.
Weather: Mont Blanc closed due to record heatwave. ‘This year, for the first time since its conquest in 1786, the heatwave has made western Europe’s highest peak too dangerous to climb. Mont Blanc is closed. The conditions have been so extreme, say glaciologists and climate experts, and the retreat of the Alps’ eternal snows and glaciers so pronounced, that the range — and its multi-billion-pound tourist industry — may never fully recover.’
Food: Cooking for the Mafia. ‘Conrad Gallagher was the highest flier in the gaudy firmament of New Ireland. A Michelin star at the age of 26, and a swank restaurant, called Peacock Alley’. Not too long afterwards, things had not gone so well — he was in the Brooklyn Detention Centre. Pretty terrifying article — a US jail is not one of the nicest places in the world…
Spam: The Howard Dean election campaign ran into a wrinkle last week — and pretty soon was apparently ‘joe-jobbed’. This one is going to get interesting, if the Dean campaign follow up, as joe-jobbing an election campaign is in violation of federal election law, and is apparently taken quite seriously.
Reminder: keep an eye on Spamvertized.Org for the latest news in political spam!
Tags: amazon, blanc, com, ffii, heatwave, indemnification, linux, mont, number, sco
‘International blacklists’ absurdity
OK, this is very stupid.
----- Transcript of session follows ----- ... while talking to mail.(elided).com.: >>> RCPT To:< << 591 The mail server you are SENDING FROM is listed on an international blacklist. Send your questions to blacklist-admin@(elided).net 554 5.0.0 Service unavailable
The mailserver in question is dogma.slashnull.org, 212.17.35.15. It’s never been on a blacklist. However, it does live outside the US — in Ireland, to be exact.
So it appears (from the wording) that someone is actually filtering their mail feed and blocking all mail from Ireland. Hello!? It’s worth noting, in passing, that I strongly doubt that blocking all mail from Ireland (a) reduces your spam load one iota or (b) accomplishes anything apart from pissing off Irish people. Ah well, not my problem…
SCO: In other news, Ben sends on this Pinky and The Brain rendition of the SCO-vs-the-world saga from Nicholas Petreley — worth a titter. Given that SCO are now sending invoices to Linux users, including charging 32 bucks for embedded developers — who almost definitely are not using Read-Copy-Update and that kind of absurdly-high-end code – it’s pretty accurate.
Malware: The latest Windows worm, coming to a system near you; make sure ports 135-139, 445 and 593 are blocked, if you really have to run Windows for some reason. The worm’s author includes this notable text string: billy gates why do you make this possible ? Stop making money and fix your software!!
Iraq: Amazing postmortem of the Iraq war. Summary: absolutely inept on the Iraqi side. ‘The only order I got was to dismantle my airplanes — the most idiotic order I ever received.’
Tags: com, mail, mailserver, order, rcpt, sco, session, transcript, windows, worm
Referrer Spam Gets Smarter
So, it seems the referrer-log spamming is getting worse. The earlier attempts all used a limited set of IPs; probably the real source machines.
However, the latest crop are now relaying through open proxies. Out of a sample size of 10 random IPs, every one was a proxy listed in the OPM blacklist.
The URLs being spamvertised are all pr0n; lots of .ws and .biz hits with pretty colourful names. Take a look here, under any of the top 5 hits. They’re outnumbering the legit hits by about 20 to 1.
BTW, it’s now pretty clear the practice of referrer-spamming is intended to gain Googlejuice; plenty of other sites have noticed it too. It’s worth noting that in my case, it won’t work — my log pages are all off-limits to the Googlebot for quite a while, but the referrer spammers haven’t figured this out yet…
Some notes:
-
the spamvertized URLs include
perlcoders.com,openproxies.com,-
cgifactory.net, so steer clear of those sites.
-
-
the User-Agents are randomised, similar to spamware’s randomised
X-Mailer headers. Some samples include:
-
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; MSN 6.1; MSNbMSFT; MSNmen-ca; MSNc00; v5m)
-
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SC/5.10/1.14/Telenor; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
-
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
-
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; Wanadoo 5.6)
My guess is they just took a large list of legit user agents, and used that.
-
-
I’ve now left them a few little surprises ;)
Tags: com, crop, ips, legit, mozilla, msie, set, source, urls, windows
Missing the point
Gary Robinson points to an announcement of a new music service, BuyMusic.com — the announcement notes ‘users of the service will not necessarily have the freedom afforded customers of … iTunes … to transfer the music purchased to multiple computers and portable devices, or to burn it to compact discs.’
How do companies like this get funding? Surely it’s obvious that people are not going to sign up for services where they are stuck with crippled DRMware, and don’t actually get to own what they buy. ‘Here’s a car. Oh BTW — you’re only permitted to drive this within 5 miles of your home, it’ll conk out if you go any further.’
I suppose it’s hardly surprising, but BuyMusic.com informs me that my browser and OS are not welcome, in a surreal throwback to 1999. Ho hum, I’ll stick with EMusic, thanks…
In other news, I’ve just signed up for a mailing list called geowanking. Official: best name ever!
Tags: announcement, btw, buymusic, car, com, drmware, freedom, funding, music, service
GTLD Nameserver has corrupt data - again
There were some reports on the SpamAssassin-talk mailing list today,
that all queries to the now-defunct orbs.dorkslayers.com DNSBL
zone are now returning a true result.
Thomas Mechtersheimer pointed out the culprit: it turns out that
b.gtld-servers.net, one of the top-level DNS global TLD servers (
run by Verisign, as far as I can see), is returning 65.246.50.11
for every query for a name that does not exist under the .com and .net
zones. That includes second-level names, and anything under a
nonexistent second-level name.
Take a look. a.gtld-servers.net is returning the correct
NXDOMAIN results, b.gtld-servers.net is blissfully sending
all this traffic to some poor UUnet dialup ;)
dig 242.110.40.68.orbs.dorkslayers.com. @a.gtld-servers.net. ;; ->>HEADER< <- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 27661 dig 242.110.40.68.orbs.dorkslayers.com. @b.gtld-servers.net. ;; ->>HEADER< <- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 52998 242.110.40.68.orbs.dorkslayers.com. 15 IN A 65.246.50.11 dig 4905893958xc98gdf9g8945.com @a.gtld-servers.net. ;; ->>HEADER< <- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 9454 dig 4905893958xc98gdf9g8945.com @b.gtld-servers.net. ;; ->>HEADER< <- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 42344 4905893958xc98gdf9g8945.com. 15 IN A 65.246.50.11
Update: It’s been fixed, as of about 1200 PDT.
Tags: com, dnsbl, header, list, mailing, name, net, spamassassin-talk, today, zone
LXG spam (fwd)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen spam, forwarded by Joe McNally:
From: ‘Allan Quartermain’ cids@sexualmarketing.com
Subject: ADV: See all of the LXG stars NAKED! - Must Be 18 Years or Older
To: ‘ ‘ zzzzzzzz@zzzzzzzz.co.uk
Joe says: ‘what, ALL of them? Brrr.’
Tags: adv, com, gentlemen, league, lxg, naked, see, spam, subject, zzzzzzzz
Hakim Bey
Interesting — some thinking about the net, blogs, etc. on Biroco.com meanders into a mail from Hakim Bey:
(…) I’m utterly not responsible for the plethora of Netishness that coagulates around my work. Personally I never ‘uploaded’ a word. Others do it, mostly without my permission and w/out even bothering to inform me. Some of it isn’t even mine - forgeries & often dis-info are rife. The Net is a pathology.
I not only don’t own a computer - I’ve ‘taken agin’ ‘em’ & have become a cyber-curmudgeon. Basically I’m only interested in things that don’t have websites. I refuse - or rather am incapable of - compensation for the demise of the physical world (you know what I mean) by losing myself in ‘the terminal state of screenal involution’ to quote a line that came in-somnia last nite.
Joel goes on to say:
Most who have read Hakim Bey seem to imagine that he regards the web as a TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zone), but in fact he doesn’t, since the physical component is missing, virtuality is not physical, at most all the web can be is an organisational mouthpiece for a TAZ but not a TAZ in itself. I agree with him, but myself, despite chucking my TV in the bin over a decade ago and Zen wanderings away from this medium, I got ensnared in the web nonetheless and do sometimes wonder whether it is indeed ‘compensation for the demise of the physical world’. We’ll see, at present I regard it as a curious assemblage project and a potential widening out of creativity.
Tags: bey, biroco, com, compensation, demise, hakim, net, taz, web, world
SpamAssassin on CNN!
Hubris: wow, SpamAssassin is on CNN.com!
The cool thing is — this photo’s syndicated by AP. Looks like SpamAssassin’s name is truly in lights now…
Tags: cnn, com, hubris, looks, name, photo, spamassassin, thing
Small World
wow, this is wierd.
So I did a quick blog-hop, as you do. First, I visited Bernie’s interim weblogs.com blog (thanks for the link B! BTW, this looks cool).
From there, I hopped to Micheal O’Foghlu’s site, and finally settled the question – yes, he is related to Cormac O’Foghlu, who I used to work with ;)
On to Sean McGrath’s blog, where I came across an interesting link to DemoTelco — a nifty site where anyone can set up a blog and write entries via SMS messages. Set up by a Dublin company, Newbay.
Cool. To check it out, I took a look at one of the blogs on the ‘most popular’ sidebar, and what do you know — it’s Caelen King’s foneblog!
Lots of (er, frankly bizarre) pics of Caelen and Barbara. Given the shots of Euro coins and crappy Dublin weather, I guess they’re back from their round-the-world trip, then…
Sure enough, it notes:
We are back in Ireland and back at work - Our Really Big Adventure is over
Know that feeling. :( Still, at least they went to the bother of finishing up their travelogue. I think I’ll take a read over that in full when I get a chance…
Tags: blog, btw, caelen, com, cool, link, micheal, question, site, wierd
valid reverse DNS now required to mail an AOL user
Given that something like 8.13% of of the hosts that have sent non-spam mail to me do not have reverse DNS information recorded, the fact that AOL have just switched this on as a requirement will be interesting:
: jm ftp 1019...; dig aol.com mx aol.com. 3559 IN MX 15 mailin-01.mx.aol.com. mailin-01.mx.aol.com. 92 IN A 152.163.224.26 ... : jm ftp 1020...; telnet 152.163.224.26 25 Trying 152.163.224.26... Connected to 152.163.224.26. Escape character is '^]'. 220-rly-za01.mx.aol.com ESMTP mail_relay_in-za1.6; Thu, 22 May 2003 15:09:54 -0400 220-America Online (AOL) and its affiliated companies do not 220- authorize the use of its proprietary computers and computer 220- networks to accept, transmit, or distribute unsolicited bulk 220- e-mail sent from the internet. Effective immediately: AOL 220- may no longer accept connections from IP addresses which 220 have no reverse-DNS (PTR record) assigned. ^] telnet> q Connection closed.
Tags: aol, com, dns, fact, ftp, information, mail, requirement, something, telnet