Well the on-going dictionary attack continues to go on. I’ve decided that it’s not a “true” dictionary attack because the addresses targeted aren’t nearly random enough. They’re all reasonable-seeming usernames (like Salazar, May, Dawson, etc) rather than the kind of bob1, bob2, bob3 progression normally characteristic of a dictionary attack. My current assumption is that… Continue reading Dictionary Attack Update
Year: 2004
The Essential (Software) Mix
As mentioned previously, I reformatted my laptop recently and installed a fresh virginal Windows XP. Then began the task of reinstalling all the of software I need. Here’s my list of essentials (some are obvious no-brainers, I’m just including them here for completeness). Photoshop Illustrator HomeSite – my favorite text editor. Dreamweaver – I find… Continue reading The Essential (Software) Mix
Big Mail and Lots Of It
Yesterday I joined the ranks of the Internet elite: I acquired a gmail account. A friend of mine had been scrounging for a while to get one and finally found somebody willing to pass out an invite after a meager financial exchange. Within about a week of activation my friend was granted three invitations of… Continue reading Big Mail and Lots Of It
Partition the Known Universe
Friday night I repartitioned my laptop’s hard drive. There were two main objectives of this project: 1) Split the single 40gig disk into two 20gig chunks and 2) obliterate all the annoying pre-installed Toshiba co-branded crap with a clean install of XP Pro. Smaller disk partitions are a good thing; I have one disk for… Continue reading Partition the Known Universe
Standards Police: It’s All Been Said
It started with an email which inspired a righteously annoyed blog post. It got linked to from another very prominent design blog which in turn spawned a heated discussion. The debate was carried to yet another blog. And ultimately it pushed someone else to swear off future postings about web standards. Summary of the debate:… Continue reading Standards Police: It’s All Been Said
IE5/Mac Annoyances
Some years back MicroSoft did an amazing thing: they developed and released a version of Internet Explorer for MacOS. They embraced the Enemy, though it was hardly an altruistic move, merely part of their strategy to crush Netscape once and for all and to establish a toe-hold in the Mac world. But ulterior motives aside,… Continue reading IE5/Mac Annoyances
On-Going Dictionary Attack
Update: I was beaten into submission and disabled my catch-all. More info in the post Dictionary Attack Update</update> A “dictionary attack” is a spammer tactic wherein spam is sent to random addresses at a given domain in hopes that some of it will get through to some willing eyeballs. It earns its name because the… Continue reading On-Going Dictionary Attack
Yellow is the New Blue
Dave Shea of CSS Zen Garden fame has today launched a radical redesign of his website. It’s getting quite a reaction and some mixed reviews, mainly because it’s very different from the previous design. Personally, I’m on the fence a bit. While it still has some kinks to work out, I’m sure it’ll grow on… Continue reading Yellow is the New Blue
Why Bulk Email *Is* Spam
I found this little spammer whine by way of spamNEWS, a daily email newsletter I subscribe to that aggregates news about spam (which should be obvious from the title). In this particular pro-spam editorial (under the guise of a “press release”), a spammer called Joseph Then attempts to once again play the redefinition game (see… Continue reading Why Bulk Email *Is* Spam
Vicarious Tourism
I’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for the better part of four years and have barely experienced a tenth of the cool stuff there is to see and do here. I live alone and don’t really have a social life to speak of, so I really just don’t have occasion to get out… Continue reading Vicarious Tourism