Well, the sick I felt the other night is now mostly gone. I’ve cleared my throat several times today but had my energy back and felt far more normal than I had been. With any luck that will be the last cold I get this year.
Twitter infected with cross-site script
This is a serious #fail on Twitter’s part. This morning some clever Twitter user crafted a Twitter tweet that spread like wildfire on the service. Using an attack known as a cross-site script, the exploit soon infectet many thousands of Twitter users.
The Tweet used a simple Javascript code (the “onmouseover” command) to point unsuspecting users to a website at t.co. Then the Javascript dutifully retweeted itself using the following code (modified for safety):
http://localhost/@”onmouseover=”document.getE1ementById(‘status’).value=’RT nobody’;$(‘.status-update-form’).submit();”c1ass=”modal-overlay”/
All a user had to do was run her mouse over the Javascript code and bam, it struck.
Twitter should’ve known better and filtered out posts that include Javascript.
Update: There doesn’t seem to be anything inherently evil about this script. All it appears to do is retweet itself. Still, it shows that the more sites like Twitter and Facebook push page-rendering and other tasks out to the browser using Javascript (or AJAX) there are bound to be security holes.
Twitter has now patched their system so that the attack cannot happen again.
Sayonora, sunspots?
A recent report says that our sun is not kicking out sunspots like it used to. The paper, by solar astronomers Matthew Penn and William Livingstone, says that the magnetic field strength of the sunspots appears to be waning.
If the trend continues, sunspots could vanish completely by 2016. The last time this happened there was a prolonged cooling spell on Earth, known as the Little Ice Age.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of this.
Sick
I spent most of the weekend sick with a cold. I wound up staying up late Friday night working on my slides for Raleigh Neighborhood Exchange. Then after waking up early Saturday for the Exchange I felt sapped most of the rest of the day (even at Sparkcon). I paid on Sunday for Saturday’s burst of activity, though. Even though it was an absolutely gorgeous day yesterday (low humidity and moderate temperatures) I didn’t want to do anything but stay inside. Even took an afternoon nap. Finally we did get out of the house yesterday, spending the late afternoon at the Lions Park playground.
It was a restless night for me last night, with many coughing spells that woke us both up. Fortunately I think I’m turning a corner and feel more energetic today than yesterday. I’m certainly ready to feel better, I can tell you that!
International Talk Like A Pirate Day (ITLAPD)
I’ve been a-waitin’ for this day to ARRRRRRRRRRRive!
Sparkcon
We spent our afternoon at Sparkcon, Raleigh’s art and design showcase that “celebrates creativity.” Fayetteville Street was covered with hundreds of beautiful chalk drawings. circusSpark performers did acrobatic tricks. Bands played on the stage in City Plaza and the Turner family played drums in the drum circle provided by Raleigh Drum Circle members.
Playing drums is interesting. I struggled to keep a steady beat at first, but then something clicked and the drum seemed to play itself. I noticed subtle changes in the group dynamic, where someone would start a cool-sounding beat and others would then latch on. This would go on until someone else would take us in a different direction and then we all began to follow the new leader. Before I knew it I was playing non-stop for 20 minutes or more without feeling fatigued. Sure, it was a workout but rather than have tired hands after playing I had “happy hands.”
We spent the rest of our time drawing our own chalk drawings at the corner of Martin and Fayetteville streets. Then it was home for pizza and rest. It’s been a long day!
Neighborhood exchanged
I spent the morning attending the Raleigh Neighborhood Exchange, a half-day of talks and information booths designed to strengthen Raleigh’s neighborhoods. It was sponsored by the city’s Community Services department, which supports the city’s CACs, including mine. I was asked to be a presenter at this year’s Exchange, and so this morning I did two sessions with Eugene Weeks (a fellow member of the Parks board) and Jason Hibbets (chair of the Southwest CAC) on the topic of using high-tech and low-tech methods to strengthen neighborhoods.
I was originally planning to speak off the cuff at today’s meeting, but last night I became inspired to create what I hoped was a captivating slide presentation, Lawrence Lessig-style. I was up until 2:30 this morning assembling my slides, grabbing about 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up for the meeting. I arrived at the Convention Center with plenty of time to spare. The only problem is that the Exchange was being held at N.C. State’s McKimmon Center! I arrived at the correct venue about 10 minutes before our session was scheduled to begin. I had time enough to wolf down a muffin and grab my badge before the session started.
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The Blind Side
We saw a movie trailer on a recent DVD rental for The Blind Side, the story of Michael Oher’s journey from the projects of Memphis to the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, thanks to his adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy.
We saw this movie a while ago and loved it. The whole time I watched it I kept thinking “this could never happen,” but the truth is it did happen. And just when I thought it was getting hokey, there would be some dynamite scene with Sandra Bullock which would floor me. I don’t typically watch movies more than once but seeing the trailer tonight makes me want to watch the whole movie again.
One of the best things about The Blind Side is its excellent casting. Everyone seems perfectly cast for their roles. Nothing turns me off of a movie supposedly set in the South than to hear a fake Southern accent. Bullock is a Southern girl who can do the accent. Well, she’s southern Germany, mostly. That’s where she spent her youth, but she did go to ECU and was born in Virginia. She is so intense and believable that her scenes make me smile. To think that Julia Roberts was first cast in this role is laughable. I can’t see her ever pulling off the accent in a believable way.
If you haven’t seen this movie, give it a watch. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Parks board vice-chair
This evening I was elected vice-chair of Raleigh’s Parks, Recreation, and Greenway Advisory Board at its monthly meeting. It’s a great honor, coming as it does exactly two years after I was appointed to the board. There are more responsibilities, of course, but nothing unmanageable.
I really love the work I’ve done on the Parks board and look forward to doing even more as it’s vice-chair!
Moving quickly
I was just marveling to Kelly tonight about how quickly my life has been moving. So much has happened just in the past month that I would hardly recognize my life a month ago. Two months ago is even more of a difference, and the past year has been nothing short of transformational.
With the huge exception of Gerry’s passing it’s mostly been good, and even Gerry’s death has spurred my growth. These lessons are not necessarily the way I wanted to learn them but you have to take what life gives you, I suppose.
I guess I can stop asking the question “when does life slow down,” because to date it has only sped up for me. I have a hunch that the trend will continue!