Category: Stupid

OK, since Barney got screwed by the latest PayPal scam, I figured I’d post this one not only to make sure that he’s aware of it, but you are, too.

I just got this sent to me via e-mail in what looked like an official FBI e-mail (I wouldn’t know what an official e-mail looks like, as I’ve never gotten one). But it was from “[email protected]”:

Dear inhabitant USA.

FBI together with government carry out investigation concerning financial thefts of money from accounts of holders of debit cards. The earnest entreaty to all owners of debit cards to follow under the link that is lower for more detailed acquaintance with a situation and to take necessary measures.

or follow this link https://www.fbi.gov/debit_theft.html

Help the government to rescue the country and yourself from financial crash.

It’s an HTML-formatted message, so the link to www.fbi.gov/debit_theft.html actually goes to 64.246.47.234//urgent_messages/debit_theft.htm which, needless to say, is not the FBI’s site.

So just for kicks, I went to the link, and it asks for your debit card number, expiration date, and PIN.

Needless to say, I didn’t give it that information up. You should NEVER give out your PIN, not even to your bank (as any good bank won’t ask for it, but they can reset it). Regardless, don’t be stupid and fall for this scam.

Just an FYI: The IP address (64.246.47.234) traces back to Everyone’s Internet and I’ll be forwarding this note on to their folks there, and I’ll be letting the originating server of this e-mail (a Comcast machine) know as well.

A high school band director has apologized for a halftime performance that included “Deutschland Uber Alles,” the anthem closely associated with Adolf Hitler, and a student running across the field with a Nazi flag. The band director was quoted as saying “We had an error in judgment.”

You think so? Jeez, buddy… Needless to say, there were nearly riots during the performance, and the school district is playing like “Oh, we didn’t even think about this making people mad.” Idiots. A Star Telegram columnist had some good comments about things, too.

But really: When is it ever a good time to show a Nazi flag? Not only that, but how in the hell did they get a hold of one to begin with? They’re not something you can just buy in any Wal-Mart.

Thanks to Barney for the tip.

I’m not really found of Wal-Mart, lately, but that doesn’t mean some people aren’t. This couple got married there. They met, fell in love, and were engaged there. So it seemed natural that they got married there. Quote:

Wal-Mart supervisors, managers and sales staff filled the back area of the garden center, and green-smocked garden workers peeked through hanging plants to watch the ceremony. An aisle fashioned from a line of potted plants led to a small gazebo.

The 200 to 300 guests, who sat in the store’s patio furniture, included friends and family of the bride and groom, as well as several Wal-Mart workers.

Boy, I bet that was a classy affair. Link via Obscure.

Now you have one. Quoting the /. story (because it sums it up very well):

As of a little while ago (it is around 7:45 PM US Eastern on Mon 15 Sep 2003 as I write this), VeriSign added a wildcard A record to the .COM and .NET TLD DNS zones. The IP address returned is 64.94.110.11, which reverses to sitefinder.verisign.com. What that means in plain English is that most mis-typed domain names that would formerly have resulted in a helpful error message now results in a VeriSign advertising opportunity. For example, if my domain name was ‘somecompany.com,’ and somebody typed ‘soemcompany.com’ by mistake, they would get VeriSign’s advertising.

VeriSign is a company which purchased Network Solutions, another company which was given the task by the US government of running the .COM and .NET top-level domains (TLDs). VeriSign has been exploiting the Internet’s DNS infrastructure ever since.

This will have the immediate effect of making network trouble-shooting much more difficult. Before, a mis-typed domain name in an email address, web browser, or other network configuration item would result in an obvious error message. You might not have known what to do about it, but at least you knew something was wrong. Now, though, you will have to guess. Every time.

Some have pointed out that this will make an important anti-spam check impossible. A common anti-spam measure is to check and make sure the domain name of the sender really exists. (While this is easy to force, every little bit helps.) Since all .COM and .NET domain names now exist, that anti-spam check is useless.

Not only that, but the system is poorly implemented so you can pass whatever you want via the URL.

ICANN, the government appointed organization that oversees the domain name system, is supposed to watch out for crap like this, but they’re about as non-functional as any government entity. They do have a complaint form, but it probably won’t do you much good to fill it out.

There’s also a NY Times story about this mess.

The folks on the GNSO mailing list, are, needless to say, on top of this, and suggested alternatives a week ago, and, hopefully, will make things right. But as one poster said:

ICANN Board should move with all haste to stop this abuse, by passing passing a vote saying:

“gTLD Registry operators WILL return NXDOMAIN for ALL DNS queries for which there is not a REGISTERED domain name.”

If ICANN is concerned at all about security and stability of the internet, they will not allow this abusive monopolist to unilaterally reshape technical standards that have not met with consensus approval of affected stakeholders.

Well said, and I hope that this gets changed before it starts to hit my DNS servers. By default, I have my browser set to hit Google for non-existant domains, but I know when a domain is broken, and it doesn’t affect services outside of my Web browser.

Update on 9/17: Patrick, who sent me the original tip, informed me that there is a BIND patch available. BIND is probably the most common DNS server out there, so please e-mail your ISPs/Webhosts and see if they can put this patch in place. I know I will be.

Will anybody care? With Quicktime the defacto standard on Macs, why would anybody even bother to install it? Oh, that’s right — because there are a pile of lame sites that send their videos in the Windows-only format, and probably anger Mac folks. Personally, I think Quicktime’s a better format, and it works across multiple platforms. But since Ken‘s getting rid of his Windows box, maybe he could install this, in case he gets nostalgic. Nah, nevermind.

Listerine is introducing a new citrus flavored mouthwash. Why will I never use it? I agree with Tara at PR Bop: Medicines that work good are supposed to taste really bad. How do you know it’s working? My favorite cough syrup is Nyquil — it tastes awful, but I know its working when I can feel it burning my throat.

Kurt Cobain is listed at number 12, ahead of Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, among others, in Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. Jimi Hendrix is listed as number one, and my two favorites — Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn — are listed at number four and seven, respectively.

Updated on 3/19/09 With proper link on Rolling Stone’s site.

Oregon’s unemployment is high, there’s no money for anything because it’s all being spent on The War, but lawmakers can still find it in themselves to give themselves a pay raise. Bastards.

George W. Bush needs to hire better folks to work on his campaign site. Not only is it running Windows 2000/IIS (which is never a good thing), Microsoft Exchange Webmail appears to be installed and wide open to public view. Guess the password, and off to prison you go! Thanks to waxy.org (who goes into more detail about problems with the site) for the link.

This is a world record I hope is never broken, but the fact that they give an option to is stupid. Screenshot from NTK.