July 2010

There were 50 posts published in July 2010 (this is page 1 of 5).

99% of people can’t watch this video more than 25 seconds

There’s a Facebook scam going around that tricks users into installing Javascript on their browser. This then opens them up to all kinds of malicious activity, the first of which is to propagate the scam by automatically updating your Facebook status with a pointer to the scam page. Yes, it takes control of your Facebook account without your permission!

If you see a status update from your Facebook friends that says “99% of people can’t watch this video more than 25 seconds,” do not click on the link!

For those of you who are curious, the video mentioned is said to be a YouTube video of a macabre scene from a seriously-disturbing horror movie called Hostel 2. Not only is this Not Safe For Work, it’s not safe for anything!

Here are some technical details about the scam from Roger Thompson at AVG. Essentially, you’ll be asked to fill out a survey before you’re asked to put the Javascript on your browser. Thus, this is a phishing scam, in addition to whatever might get done to your Facebook account.

Just save yourself the trouble and don’t click on the page.

Sobering look at end-of-life decisions

The New Yorker has a thoughtful article asking if end-of-life procedures for terminally-ill patients are only masking the inevitable, giving these patients false hope when medicine could instead be helping them make the most of their last days. It’s worth thinking about.

Sara Thomas Monopoli was pregnant with her first child when her doctors learned that she was going to die. It started with a cough and a pain in her back. Then a chest X-ray showed that her left lung had collapsed, and her chest was filled with fluid. A sample of the fluid was drawn off with a long needle and sent for testing. Instead of an infection, as everyone had expected, it was lung cancer, and it had already spread to the lining of her chest. Her pregnancy was thirty-nine weeks along, and the obstetrician who had ordered the test broke the news to her as she sat with her husband and her parents. The obstetrician didn’t get into the prognosis—she would bring in an oncologist for that—but Sara was stunned. Her mother, who had lost her best friend to lung cancer, began crying.

via Hospice medical care for dying patients : The New Yorker.

Cheap thoughts: hitting the restroom

Why do some men feel the need to hit the restroom? Why not use it instead?

I hear this all the time in the office: “hey, I’ll catch up with you. I’m going to hit the restroom.”

Evil lair to become B&B

Remember the evil MT.Net lair I diabolically schemed to purchase? The winning bidder, Richard Neal of Mint Hill, intends to turn the former Frying Pan Shoals lighthouse into a bed and breakfast. Curses!

A Mint Hill man hopes to turn an abandoned tower standing 60 feet above the white-capped waves of the Atlantic into one of North Carolina’s most distinctive vacation getaways.

The tower’s 5,000 square feet of living space includes seven bedrooms, a kitchen and a rec room. Guests would come by boat or helicopter. They could expect fabulous views of sunrises, sunsets, sea turtles and even migrating whales.

While I am intrigued with the idea of spending time on this rusty outpost just for the fun of it, I find the best thing about beds and breakfasts is the neighborhood around them. When you get to Frying Pan Shoals B&B, what are you going to do? Can’t go for a walk. Can’t shop at the quaint stores nearby because nearby is 25 miles away. However, if you like to fish you’ve got a great place to do it. Also, I think it would make a great recording studio. Or pirate radio station!

Or … an evil lair. Sigh.

Update 29 July: You can follow Richard’s progress (and book a reservation) here.

Winner vs. champion

Photo by Haggisnl

I like the distinction made in this Christian Science Monitor story on this year’s Tour De France (emphasis mine):

The 97th Tour de France was filled with action after a lackluster 2009 edition.

A new rivalry was cemented – winner Alberto Contador of Spain barely defeated Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck on the penultimate day – as the race bid adieu to seven-time champion Lance Armstrong, riding in his final Tour amidst a developing federal doping investigation.

See? Contador is a winner but Armstrong is a champion. As long as Contador disrespects cycling tradition he will never be a champion.

via Tour de France 2010 delivers drama – without the doping – CSMonitor.com.

How Skype gets around firewalls


Here’s a fascinating description of how the Skype VoIP application can poke holes through firewalls – bypassing your network security. What’s even more eye-opening is that there is little that can be done to block it.

Anyone who has used the popular Internet telephony software Skype knows that it works as smoothly behind a NAT firewall as it does if the PC is connected directly to the Internet. The reason for this is that the inventors of Skype and similar software have come up with a solution.

Naturally every firewall must also let packets through into the local network – after all the user wants to view websites, read e-mails, etc. The firewall must therefore forward the relevant data packets from outside, to the workstation computer on the LAN. However it only does so, when it is convinced that a packet represents the response to an outgoing data packet. A NAT router therefore keeps tables of which internal computer has communicated with which external computer and which ports the two have used.
Continue reading →

Alberto Contador has no class

Here’s a good writeup explaining why the Spaniard Alberto Contador might be the winner of this year’s Tour De France, but he will never be the champion.

Alberto Contador was being dropped again by Andy Schleck just as the mechanical happened. There is no doubt that Contador is strong and perhaps would have closed the gap to Schleck had the mechanical not happened, but to see the Spaniard rise out of the saddle and accelerate just as Schleck was experienceing his equipment malfunction was hard to watch . . . and it cheapens Contador’s lead in the race. Should the Spaniard win this year’s race by less than a minute, those who watched will remember that he is not truly the winner of the 2010 Tour.

Read the rest here.

Metal Method with Sledge

Back in the 1990s this show, “Metal Method with Sledge,” was the rage on Raleigh’s public access channel. Fortunately it lives on thanks to YouTube. Rock on!