Screwed By Design

Come an’ get it!
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/1.5

If you’ve got RC3, there is no need to update.

My Firefox extension (DSLR Notifier) for Dslreports has finally hit 1.0!
I sort of stopped working on it for a while, but I finally spent some time this weekend fixing some bugs and adding new features. If you’re a member of the site, check it out!
Take a look at the release announcement.

Second network card: $4.95
30 minutes spent figuring out how to send additional traffic over said NIC: $0
ourTunes: $0
‘Borrowing’ roommate’s network jack to create a theoretical total throughput of 200mbps: $0

Achieving nirvana on a level never before thought possible: Priceless

It seems the spammers have found the blog installation at http://blogs.tcchat.net TrackBack spam seems to be the most popular by far. Over the past week we’ve had 600 TrackBacks and 100% of them are spam. The large majority of of those TBs are from spammers attempting to find blogs where everything is published immediately. The majority of the test pings are simply labeled ‘test comment (random #)’ (creative :P) while the rest are just disgusting. Anything ranging from bestiality to incest could be found in our junk TB queue - almost all coming from random IPs in Ukraine. So I’ve simply killed off that entire IP block in iptables (who in the Ukraine would be reading our blogs anyway).

Due to the scale of our installation, our settings are incredibly strict. By default all feedback is held for review in addition to being scanned by SpamLookup. And as if that wasn’t enough, repeat junked comment/TB offenders are automatically added to iptables by a little script that’s constantly scanning the currently queued feedback.

The only problem with this system is the human factor. We’ve already had a few Splogs get passed through as legit TrackBacks and have had users approve them
Thank god MT 3.2 aggregates all the comments and pings, otherwise fighting semi-legit spam would be impossible.

Even with a few inherent weaknesses, we’re still nearly impenetrable - so if you’re a spammer attempting to use this installation to promote your disgusting, annoying or crappy wares, fuck off

An exploit for all versions of Internet Explorer was discovered in the wild yesterday. The original exploit discovered and reported to Microsoft in May would only hang IE, but this new discovery allows an attacker to execute any program on your computer. Using a weakness in the way IE handles the JavaScript window() function, an attacker could for example open the command prompt with a command to delete the contents of your My Documents directory. The possibilities are almost endless to what this could be used for. No patch has been issued by Microsoft at this time, but running as a limited account under XP will reduce the ability of this to make drastic system-wide changes.

There is also another solution which works just as well

Even though this week is only going to last until Wednesday it’s already looking like it’s going to drag on forever. So far, since last Thursday I’ve:
- Taken 4 exams
- Written a 3 page research proposal
- Done two 10K erg tests (~35min. all out - ouch :P)
- Had practice twice a day, everyday except Sunday

And before Wednesday ends, I’ve got this to look forward to:
- Two more exams
- Four more practices
- Write the first draft of a 10 page research paper
- Pack all my crap

Thursday can’t come too soon

Release Candidate 3 has been released. If you’re running one of the betas or RC1/2, you should upgrade now (Help -> Check for Updates) or download the latest release. 1.5 final should be out within another week or so

It’s now winter in Madison. It hasn’t stopped snowing since last night. There’s about an inch on the ground now (it rained before snowing, so most of it melted) and three inches have fallen. And it’s COLD! It’s only 18 degrees right now

Oh and my bike lock is frozen shut - hot water just freezes on contact

…they’re calling for accumulating snow before Thanksiving.

Prior to the Badger-Iowa game Saturday, there was a chili cook-off with tons of free food held in the field house. Because the event was free, the school decided to use the various sports teams as sources of “volunteers” for the event. For most other sports, the event truly was voluntary - but our coach had promised that we’d get free tickets to the game. Needless to say, everyone signed up. But earlier this week, we found that we’d be unable to get the tickets due to a new NCAA rule this year :p So to make sure everyone would show, our coach made the event mandatory… (continued)
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