Worldwide Telescope May 13, 2008 15:12
Posted by Ted in computers, geek, technology.add a comment
Got a PC? Wanna see something wicked cool? Check out Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope. Think Google Earth, only on a galactic scope. I’ve downloaded the Spring Beta on my work machine and have only spent a few minutes checking it out but, damn, it’s cool!
They’re not even trying anymore… July 3, 2007 22:40
Posted by Ted in blogging, computers, phishing, spoofing, technology, work, wtf?.1 comment so far
Just got the following email in my Gmail Inbox:
Dear valued PayPal member:
Identity protection matters. And PayPal works day and night to help keep your identity safe. That’s why it has come to our attention that your PayPal account information needs to be updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you could take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service.
However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension.
Once you have updated your account records, your PayPal session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.
To login to your PayPal account and update your records click on the following link:
http://[redacted]/updateusersonlinesecurity.html
Thank You for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
OK, there’s a few things wrong here but the most blatant is the fact that they didn’t even bother spoofing the URL of paypal.com, they just went ahead and put up the IP address of a server in the Czech Republic (thanks dnsstuff.com!)
Is this just an example of spammers/spoofers/phishers/whateverthefuckthey’recallingthemselvesnow not caring or just ineptitude? I’m betting on ineptitude myself.
Halo 3 Trailer: Holy Crap! December 5, 2006 16:54
Posted by Ted in computers, geek.add a comment
Just click this link and revel in the glory of the Master Chief! God, I can’t wait until November 2007. Until then, I guess I’m going to have to download the trailer to my 360 and play the hell out of it.
While you’re drooling, if you have a XBOX Live Gold account, you can sign up for the beta as well.
**UPDATE 12/06/2006**
Looks like someone online liked the music for the Gears of War Trailer so much, they remixed the HALO 3 trailer with it. It’s pretty inspired! Check it out! The audio cues work surprisingly well.
Firefox 2.0 released, hooray! October 24, 2006 15:15
Posted by Ted in computers, geek.1 comment so far
I’m an unabashed Firefox fan, I have no qualms admitting that. Well sir, Firefox 2.0 was released today and you should really give it a try. I almost never use IE anymore unless I have to (certain sites I use for work-related stuff won’t work with Firefox, but 99.99% of sites do.)
Anyway, here’s a link to download it. Just do it. Have fun, join the converted.
Yeah… Let me know how that works out for you… September 27, 2006 13:35
Posted by Ted in computers, technology, work, wtf?.2 comments
Got the following email in our Support mailbox asking us to join the class-action lawsuit:
Hello
I am writing you today to ask that you get involved in a Class Action Lawsuit to stop the abuse and blackmail perpetrated by a vigilante organization known as Spamhaus and run by Steve Linford.
We have talked to many ISPs and hosting companies and the consensus is basically the same. ISPs are tired of being blackmailed and bullied by this group of thugs and we propose to put an end to it by filing a Lawsuit. The defendants in this lawsuit will be
1. Spamhaus.org
2. Steve Linford
3. Companies that use and support Spamhaus.
4. ISPs that unjustly shut or refuse service based on Spamhaus direction.
As you may already know Spamhaus just lost an 11.7 million dollar lawsuit filed by e360insight.com. they have refused to abide by the federal court order and will be soon held in contempt. If you are using Spamhaus you may be exposing your company to huge liability as they do not follow any law in their blacklisting and Steve Linford uses his position to abuse his list as a weapon for personal vendettas.
Facts:
1. Spamhaus lists sites, IPs and ISPs that are not spamming.
2. Steve Linford uses his blacklists to enrich himself and for personal vendettas
3. Steve Linford owns a hosting company UXN.COM which is a direct conflict of interest in operating his illegal blacklist
4. Steve Linford Ignores United States courts and laws
5. Steve Linford Blackmails ISPs by listing IPs of innocents in order to get them to comply with whatever he asks.
6. The same list Spamhaus misrepresents as their SBl is freely available at [URL deleted by Ted] (without the blackmail)
7. Steve Linford has no regard for free speech and puts sites on his list solely for speaking out about him to repress the growing Anti-spamhaus movement.
One only needs to log into [URL deleted by Ted] to see the absolute nonsense that goes on there and Steve Linford banging his chest and bragging he can shut down any site or host in the world.
Regardless of the fight against spam there is no place on the internet for one man to decide who has a website and who does not.
If you are Interested in more information and updates as we progress please send an email to [Email address deleted by Ted] and we will add you to our confidential list.
At the very least if your tired of this kind of blackmail, do not bow to the Illegal actions of Spamhaus and log into [URL delted by Ted] and tell them what you think of their blackmail tactics.
It is time for Spamhaus to go. if you google “Spamhaus Terrorists” and “Spamhaus Judgment” you can read more about what is going on recently.
Thank you for your time
Committee to stop Spamhaus censorship and Blackmail
Yeah, we’ll go right ahead and do that…
Sample Support Call of the Day September 22, 2006 10:26
Posted by Ted in computers, work.1 comment so far
Ted: Help desk, this is Ted.
Caller: Hi! I’m not a customer of yours and you’ve never heard of me, but I have a question.
T: Go ahead, I’ll see what I can do.
C: I sent an email a year ago and I need to find it.
T: OK, what program were you using to send the message?
C: AOL
T: (SHUDDER) OK, did you use Outlook or Netscape to send the message or did you use AOL?
C: I sent it using AOL.
T: OK, did you use their web-based client or was it from an email client?
C: The web-based client.
T: I was afraid you’d say that. If you’d used their web-based client, the message is on their server.
C: Well, I saw on TV that people could get onto someone’s computer and find things like this.
T: Well, that’s true, if you’d used something like Outlook or Netscape, we might be able to help you find it. Since you used their web-based client, you’d have to contact them.
C: Here’s the deal: I really need that email. I’ve got a pending lawsuit and it’s vital that I have that message and AOL only keeps copies of sent messages for 30 days.
T: Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do. Sorry.
C: Don’t be, you’ve given me somewhere to start. *sigh* I guess I’ll call AOL now.
T: *chuckle* Allright, well, good luck with that!
C: Yeah, thanks anyway!
T: No problem, thanks for calling!
…the Hell was that? August 24, 2006 19:37
Posted by Ted in computers, friends.add a comment
No idea what happened there for a while, but the site was kinda messed up. After Gene taking a look at it and poking around on the back-end, the site’s back up and running. Guess it was the old look for a while too, we had to turn off the plugins to see if that what was causing the issue. It wasn’t.
Anyway, thanks to Gene for fixing it and to Tom and Caley for, well, laughing at me while I wept uncontrollably wringing my hands and tearing out what little hair I have left…
Oh yeah, I’m on vacation! Yay!
Using Google Analytics August 18, 2006 10:12
Posted by Ted in blogging, computers.add a comment
Baaaaa!
OK, now that I’ve got that out of the way… I’ve been using Google Analytics for a couple of days now and am, so far, very happy with what I’m getting for the low, low price of free. Tom turned me on to a cool little plugin for my WordPress blog called Google Analyticator which requires that you just type in your Google Analytics user ID into a field and it does the rest automagically. Very slick and painless, just the way I like it.
If you’re interested in setting up Google Analytics (formerly known as Urchin Reports) all you need is a Google account (GMail or whatever) to get signed up and started with getting stats for your site. Don’t have a GMail account? Leave a comment requesting one and I’ll shoot you an invite, just leave your email address in the comment field.
Another reason why I shouldn’t be working in IT… May 25, 2006 22:39
Posted by Ted in computers, wtf?.comments closed
I feel like an idiot right now… I was doing some maintenance on my PC, like I do every other week or so, just to clean up anything on the machine that I was demo’ing or whatever and accidentally uninstalled the drivers for my wireless card.
That’s a problem see, because I don’t have a router anymore and it’s pretty hard to download drivers for your wireless card if you can’t surf the intertron. After a few seconds of, “holy crap, now what,” I remembered that I could just roll back the clock and do a system restore to a few hours ago…
I think this will wind up being a “Lanlogic blog entry” tomorrow.
Bye-bye Media Play! April 24, 2006 16:42
Posted by Ted in computers, movies, music.comments closed
Jen and I were at the Great Mall in Milpitas yesterday and as we were walking around I noticed that Media Play was gone. Not a big surprise as they were maybe the highest-marked up store I’ve ever been to. Still, it was a bit of a shock as they’ve been there for quite a long time. Does anyone know when it closed?
What’s there now is some home furniture shop with a ton of empty space and a plenty of fake plants…
My new work computer February 4, 2006 2:09
Posted by Ted in computers, work.comments closed
My new work computer
Originally uploaded by TedsBlog.
I got a new computer at work this week and finally got a chance to set it up tonight. It’s a wicked-awesome Dell Optiplex GX620. 125 GB SATA2 Hard Drive, 2 GB of RAM, 8 USB ports, one video-out supporting two monitors, and two 19-inch Dell flat-screen displays.
Truly, a thing of wonder.
Google Talk is live! August 24, 2005 10:48
Posted by Ted in computers, geek, technology, work.comments closed
Google Talk
Originally uploaded by TedsBlog.
It’s been rumored and talked about for the last few days, and now it’s here.
Google’s chat client is pretty light on bells and whistles. Just like everything else Google does, the interface is very clean and non-flashy. It’s got voice capabilities as well, but I’ve been trying out Skype for the last week or so and don’t really need another VoIP client, but I’m willing to give it a shot once more people I know get involved with this thing.
I still have 50 GMail invites… July 13, 2005 15:07
Posted by Ted in computers, geek.comments closed
So I logged into my GMail mailbox and noticed that I’ve got like 50 accounts that I can give away. Want one? Just leave a comment with your e-mail address and it’s yours. Want a bunch of ‘em? That’s fine too… Give one to your doggie, doggies nees unlimited email storage too you know!
Technorati Tags: free gmail, gmail, free email, tedsblog
Why I’m using iTunes again July 8, 2005 15:42
Posted by Ted in computers, work.comments closed
This is why I’m using iTunes again. I’ve never really been into the whole podcasting thing that’s apparently sweeping the internet, but after updating iTunes to 4.9, I can see why they’re popular. I’ve been able to head podcasts from the Al Franken Show on Sundance Channel, David Lawrence’s podcast about technology (David hosts one of my all-time favorite radio shows, Online Tonight) and a couple of other pretty cool podcasts to boot.
I’ve just started playing around with this, so I’m not totally up to speed about it yet, but am enjoying it so far. I’m still using the Yahoo Music Engine most of the time, but it’ll be nice to upload some podcasts to my iPod for trips and the like and get some interesting stuff to listen to when I’m sick of music… Like that’d ever happen.
Sasser Worm Creator Sentenced July 8, 2005 11:59
Posted by Ted in computers, work.comments closed
Remember the Sasser worm that came out in 2003? Boy, I do. It’s what caused lots of ISPs to start blocking port 135 (the port that Outlook uses to communicate with an Exchange server) and causing a HUGE pain in my ass professionally.
Anyway, the kid who created the worm that "crashed hundreds of thousands of computers" was convicted and will serve three years of probation. If he commits another crime, he will have to serve 21 months in jail. Oh yeah, he’s also got to do 30 hours of community service in an old-folks home or hospital.
I’m sorry, but this kid did an uncountable amount of fiscal damage to hundreds of thousands of computers and only gets three years of probation? Jesus.
What should happen is that each person affected by his worm should have the opportunity to kick him in their body part of choice. I call dibs on the crotch…
