Keep people from linking to your images

The IRS scam email below links to the IRS logo, on the IRS website itself! The government could avoid having its own bandwidth used for scams by adding some rewrite rules in Apache.

When I saw some of my photos being linked from other websites (usually forum-type sites that don’t provide their users the ability to upload their own files), I decided I didn’t want to foot the bill to host images shown on other websites. I followed this great tutorial and implemented my own RewriteRules, which have worked like a charm:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.(gif|jpe?g|png)$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !no-direct-links\.png [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?markturner\.net/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?planettrilug\.org/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !google\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !search\?q=cache [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.markturner.net/wp-content/no-direct-links.png [R,NC,L]

These rules allow images to appear on my website, the PlanetTrilug website, and Google’s image searches, but any other sites linking directly to my images get a “No Direct Links” image instead.

I am pretty easygoing with the use of my images (many of them donated to the public domain), but hosting them for other sites costs me money. If you would like to post one of my images on your website, if it’s a public domain (or Creative Commons) one feel free! If it is not, shoot me an email and let me know your plans. Whatever you do, though, please use your own server. Don’t link directly to my images. Thanks!

Scam email: Federal Tax payment canceled

Got another scam email, this time purporting to be from the IRS. There’s a handy executable file which will not provide you the details but instead infect your computer with a virus. Beware!

Received: from 66.141.broadband10.iol.cz (66.141.broadband10.iol.cz [90.177.141.66])
by eddy.neusemedia.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 319388AE824
for ; Wed, 22 Jun 2011 08:05:45 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from [130.104.251.35] (account practisingfu@travidia.com HELO lhisllbqq.epevnviqxbl.va)
by 66.141.broadband10.iol.cz (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.2.3)
with ESMTPA id 072829134 for me; Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:05:47 +1100
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:05:47 +1100
From: Eloy_Todd@irs.gov
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.10.01) Educational
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID: 9846395078.17E5RC9W861799@mvnus.ertqklybgfajqyk.info
To: Mark Turner
Subject: Federal Tax payment canceled

Internal Revenue Service United States Department of the Treasury

Your Tax payment (ID: 40459362352125), recently initiated from your bank account was returned by the The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System.

Rejected Tax transfer
Tax Transaction ID: 40459362352125
Return Reason See details in the report below
FederalTax Transaction Report tax_report_40459362352125.pdf.exe (self-extracting archive, Adobe PDF)

Internal Revenue Service, Metro Plex 1, 8401 Corporate Drive, Suite 300, Landover, MD 20785

Google hunts government business


There was a full-page ad in today’s newspaper from Google, trumpeting how “the State of Wyoming has gone Google.” Apparently, the state government there has transitioned from hosting their own mail servers and commercial office applications in favor of Google Apps.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this. UNC Chapel-Hill’s Ibiblio transitioned its email accounts from in-house servers to Google’s GMail and has been happy with the results. So has UNC Asheville. I know some local governments in North Carolina which are considering the move, too. But I’m still smarting from Google’s no-show during this year’s losing municipal broadband legislative battle. Google could have become a high-profile proponent of open networks in this state but instead its efforts were limited to lending its name to a form letter. Google’s lobbyists (Capstrat, apparently) have been all but invisible.

I wonder how Google hopes to persuade governments to turn over a major portion of their IT work based on a newspaper ad (and a spectacularly uncreative one at that). We’ll see how effective this approach turns out to be.

Chicago O’Hare versus Chicago Midway

During last week’s trip to St. Charles, a colleague quizzed me on my choice of flying into Chicago Midway as opposed to O’Hare. Most of my coworkers prefer to fly O’Hare. My answer was that I’ve found it quicker to get a rental car at Midway Airport than O’Hare, where a bus trip is inevitable.

But there’s a bigger reason that I was reminded of when my colleague was late arriving to St. Charles this morning: taxiing time. It takes forever to taxi around O’Hare airport. My colleague’s plane got delayed because of other planes stacked up on the ground. During last year’s flight to Chicago from Milwaukee, my plane spent as much time on the ground at O’Hare as it did in the air getting there!

Chicago Midway is a much smaller airport. That translates into less time wasted on the ground, which in turn makes traveling so much more efficient.

Happy Father’s Day

It was a happy Father’s Day for me. Ate a nice pancake breakfast made by Kelly, talked to my own dad on the phone this morning, and went on a 10 mile bike ride with the family to Lassiter Falls and back. We stopped by Qdoba for lunch and then cooled off at the house for the rest of the day. Fun, fun!

I’m pretty tired now, but comfortable. Looking forward to a nice, quiet evening reading and then sleeping.

Hope your Father’s Day was fun, too.

Carter: Call Off the Global Drug War

Former President Jimmy Carter rightfully calls for the end of the failed “War on Drugs.”

IN an extraordinary new initiative announced earlier this month, the Global Commission on Drug Policy has made some courageous and profoundly important recommendations in a report on how to bring more effective control over the illicit drug trade.

The report describes the total failure of the present global antidrug effort, and in particular America’s “war on drugs,” which was declared 40 years ago today. It notes that the global consumption of opiates has increased 34.5 percent, cocaine 27 percent and cannabis 8.5 percent from 1998 to 2008. Its primary recommendations are to substitute treatment for imprisonment for people who use drugs but do no harm to others, and to concentrate more coordinated international effort on combating violent criminal organizations rather than nonviolent, low-level offenders.

via Call Off the Global Drug War – NYTimes.com.

Discovering a thriving newspaper

In my handful of trips made to St. Charles, Illinois, I had never come across a local paper until this most recent visit. My hotel had a stack of Daily Herald papers in its lobby so I took a look. I have to say I’m impressed. I would’ve never thought that a paper could thrive in the shadow of giants like the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times but this one apparently does.

The Herald serves the suburbs of Chicago. It keeps a decidedly-local focus but still carries occasional AP wire stories. It appeared to have a robust advertising business (including, regretfully, some of the same shyster “gold exhibit” type of advertising that I’ve taken the N&O to task for). Aside from the somewhat wingnut-flavored stories (OMG gummint employees are being compensated for their unused sick time!!!) it seems like a decent newspaper.

I think the Daily Herald may be validating my view that the way for media to succeed is to focus on the local. That, and don’t take on a mountain of debt!

N.C. Nearspace balloon launch

N.C. Nearspace launches helium balloon

If the Stormfest 2011 event wasn’t enough fun for one day, Travis and I had another fun event. We drove across town to the state fairgrounds to watch N.C. Nearspace launch another weather balloon (the club’s sixth).

Travis and I got there just as the team was inflating the helium balloon. An impressive crowd had gathered around, making it a challenge to actually see what was happening! We soon found a spot and watched as the team did its work.

With the crowd providing a lively countdown, the team released the balloon. Cheers rose with the balloon as it glided slowly through the hot, late-spring sky. The balloon eventually landed in a horse pasture in Ayden, North Carolina, just south of Greenville. It reached just over 60,000 feet on its meandering journey.
Continue reading →

Stormfest 2011

We had a great time biking into downtown Raleigh and checking out Stormfest 2011 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The museum was packed with people checking out all the storm-related tables ranging from information, science demonstrations, and local weather forecasters from both the National Weather Service and local news stations.

My first stop was the CERT table, where I picked up a schedule showing the upcoming training. I’d heard about CERT a few years ago when I invited the city’s emergency management director to my East CAC meeting. After my mailed application to join CERT came back undeliverable I gave up on the organization. It was only when I met volunteers helping with the tornado recovery in my neighborhood that I pursued them again. I hope to be in the upcoming classes, learning how I can better assist during a disaster.
Continue reading →

The (ever) continuing story of The Arcada


Remember my previous posts about the value of editors? Tuesday I found another doozie where a quick proofreading would’ve saved some embarrassment.

This one was on a city-owned sign in downtown St. Charles, IL next to a public parking lot. It tells the story of the Arcada Theater, a local music venue that dates back to the 1920s. I’d been intrigued by the venue so I eagerly read the sign while I waited for my friend to arrive. Just when I start getting drawn into its narrative, I read this:
Continue reading →