TECHNOLOGY: Some spammer tips his technique with spam to my domain

Sunday, July 12, 2009

AN EMAIL TO A SECURITY GURU ACQUAINTANCE OF MINE

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Thought you’d find this interesting. As an old security guy, (well that’s what all the recruiters tell me, “too old”, and “50 is the new 90”. I’m “only” 62! Strange world we live in.), I am seeing a “new” form of spam.

Background: I run an alumni news blog / ezine / website. Never, ever any email address in it. Just news. “Joe Blow Class of 1970 died”, “Samantha Smith Class of 1980 promoted”, “Harry Potter Class of 1990 gets Hogswarth PhD”. Absolutely of little interest to other than alumni. I, of course, having too much time on my hands have our own domain. Jasper Jottings dot com.

Punchline: I am now seeing spam addressed to: Joe.Blow, blow.joe, blowj …, jblow, samantha.smith, smith.samantha, etc. etc. AT my domain name! Lots of it.

Conclusion: Someone is parsing the content. Extracting names. And, has a pretty sophisticated addressing mechanism.

Sidenote: Of course, the laughs on them because there are ZERO real people to read the spam. These are advertising commercial products. Not Nigerian benefactors, male / female enhancements, nor get rich quick schemes. But they are tech conferences, odd technology products, and tech books on amazon.

Observation: “Real” websites, for companies or business, with people named on the site are going to get slimed.

Just thought you’d enjoy this little wrinkle. Clearly we need IPv6 and authenticated email; replace SMTP once and for all. (Love to lead that effort for some one!) As I said, too much time on my hands.

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Love it when I find something new.
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POLITICS: No politics at work when it comes to spending for the recovery

Sunday, July 12, 2009

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-08-redblue_N.htm

Billions in aid go to areas that backed Obama in ’08
By Brad Heath, USA TODAY

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WASHINGTON — Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year’s presidential election.

That aid — about $17 billion — is the first piece of the administration’s massive stimulus package that can be tracked locally. Much of it has followed a well-worn path to places that regularly collect a bigger share of federal grants and contracts, guided by formulas that have been in place for decades and leave little room for manipulation.

“There’s no politics at work when it comes to spending for the recovery,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says.

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Yeah, that’s a howler. Almost wet myself. Does anyone really believe these guys?

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WRITING: 10% discount on Church from Lulu

Sunday, July 12, 2009

“It Started In Church – October 19th, 1962”,

or more simply “CHURCH 10●19●62”   

http://www.itstartedinchurch.com

200907081405.jpg

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LIBERTY: Free Speech and the British

Saturday, July 11, 2009


200907111509.jpg

(Supplied by one of my networking colleagues!)

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INTERESTING: Big … empty … boxes

Saturday, July 11, 2009

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D998DVD80&show_article=1

As retailers cut back cities confront ‘ghostboxes’
Jul 5 01:15 PM US/Eastern
By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press Writer

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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Hundreds of anxious shoppers watched as city officials used power saws to cut 2-by-4s during Home Depot Inc.’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for its 102,700-square-foot building center in Bismarck. Less than three years later, the home improvement retailer shuttered the underperforming store, leaving a big orange empty eyesore on the outskirts of town.

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Interesting how the town bureaucrats treat the coomonwealth as their own little business. As if they had any investment in it. The taxpayers do; not them.

For those, that hate WalMart and the other big box stores, seems the way to keep them out is to have a “rip it out if you close” law.

Love it.

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INTERESTING: Self-pub author gets a real deal!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/07/11/indie-kindle-author-lands-book-deal/

Indie Kindle author lands book deal
by John Biggs on July 11, 2009

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And you though self-pubished books were all rubbish. Author Boyd Morrison sold two books, the first one called The Ark, to Simon & Schuster. Boyd uploaded and sold the books himself and raised awareness for his novels by being a member of Kindle Boards and generally self-promoting.

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Hope springs eternal!

http://www.itstartedinchurch.com

LOL!

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JOBSEARCH: Here’s good advice; has nothing to do with “coaching”

Saturday, July 11, 2009

http://hoopscoach.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/starting-line-in-coaching/

THE COACHING STARTING LINE
Posted on July 4, 2009 by hoopscoach
(Part 4 in a series on the coaching profession)

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For the past few days I have been blogging about the coaching profession. I have touched on a few different topics Improvement, Work Ethic and Why We Coach. Every experienced coach has their own personal story on how they entered the business. Most stories are very interesting. Next time you are talking with a peer, ask them how they got their start?

{Extraneous Deleted}

If you want to enter coaching at the collegiate level, you better try and get with someone who is good. You better be ready to start at the bottom and have a small pay check (if you’re lucky enough to get paid). Entering coaching, there is no surefire, direct way. Everyone has their own story (as mentioned before). You can start as a team manager and become a sponge. Learn everything you can about the business. Maybe you played for a guy in college who is a head coach and he hires you. Maybe you know someone who knows a head coach looking for someone. However you get in, it’s a growing process-don’t be in such a hurry to advance. There are no short-cuts.

Write letters to coaches, pick their brains. Ask to work their camp in the summer. Make calls, shoot off e-mails and introduce yourself. Let people know what your aspirations are. Attend clinics and try to speak with the coaches after it’s over. In the beginning of your journey, be prepared to work hard.

If you are lucky enough to get in, don’t be afraid to get down and dirty. You may have to wipe up sweat off the ground, hand water out to players and rebound for them late into the night. Look for things to do.

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Seems like that’s a success formula for anyone starting out in ANY line of work. IMHO!

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SERVICE: BUG HUNT! WORDPRESSDOTCOM prime suspect; ECTO secondary suspect

Friday, July 10, 2009

I lost content on my Jasper Jottings blog. The the free, and unequaled, wordpressdotcom is the prime suspect. But, it might be ECTO, my secondary suspect.

Only on Jasper Jottings. Happened once last week. Didn’t have time or attention to chase.

Now I do!

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Using ECTO, I posted a story on 7/10. “JBlogger: Stagnaro, Melissa [MC1997?] Cancer runner. Donate?”

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When I looked at my FEEDBLITZ daily email collection of stories, one was blank. So I recreated and reposted it with today’s date. It was blank on the site as well (so it wasn’t feedblitz).

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It happened last week, but I didn’t think to much of it. I thought maybe I screwed it up. Today, I’m positive, I didn’t.

I’m not sure it’s the free, and unequaled, wordpressdotcom that has a bug. It could be ecto. But, why all of a sudden, starting last week do I suddenly have a problem? I’ve been using ecto for a while and no updates. Whereas, WP being outside of my control, might have had a change last week. So I suspect, WP. No proof.

But, I’m on a “bug hunt”

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UPDATE: The the free, and unequaled, wordpressdotcom responded that the items were store blank. This makes ECTO prime.

UPDATE: Certain posts, prepositioned, are blank. That content is lost. Argh!

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RANT: Government is uncontrollable

Friday, July 10, 2009

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Jury sees videos of La. congressman accepting cash

By MATTHEW BARAKAT – 17 hours ago

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal jury has seen video of a former Louisiana congressman accepting a suitcase filled with $100,000 in cash outside a northern Virginia hotel.

The videos played Tuesday are a key piece of evidence in the bribery trial of William Jefferson, a Democrat who represented parts of New Orleans. He’s accused of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes to broker business deals in Africa.

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This bozo did not have the decency to conceal his corruption. ALL politicians and bureaucrats are the same. Some are just a little more circumspect than others. BUT they all are feathering their own nests at our expense.

Anarchy, not chaos, is the only solution. Government, as a meme, can NOT be controlled.

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FUN: Luddite forwards me “an american doctor”

Friday, July 10, 2009

A French doctor says, “Medicine in my country is so advanced that we

can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him

looking for work in six weeks.”

A German doctor says, “That is nothing; we can take a lung out of one

person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four

weeks.”

The Russian doctor says, “In my country, medicine is so advanced that

we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and

have them both looking for work in two weeks.”

An American doctor, not to be outdone, says, “You guys are way behind!

We recently took an unknown man with no brain out of Illinois , put him

in the White House, and now half the country is looking for work.”

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