I’m sitting at the Lake of the Ozarks in a condo that we rented with some friends. My daughter is with her grandmother. My wife is out shopping. My buddy is playing Red Dead Redemption on his PS3. And what am I doing? I’m CODING.
I swear I’m incapable of letting my brain just check out and do nothing. I can’t help but think about all the items on my plate and what work is going to be like when I return next week. Sometimes I wonder if vacation is even worth it.
I had been rocking along with an older version of WordPress for about 2 months now – 2.7.1 to be exact. I was hesitant to upgrade to the latest release which as of this time is 2.8.3. I knew that several plugins would be broken if I attempted to upgrade so I had been busy contacting the plugin authors inquiring about new releases that were compatible. Boy, did I learn my lesson.
I came to my site last Thursday morning to find the URLs were completely screwed up. I went into the permalinks tool and noticed my configuration had been modified to include a bunch of javascript garbage in the URL. Some ass clown had undoubtedly changed this setting in order to gain further access to my site or the server it’s hosted on.
After investigating, I found no further damage, but I was left wondering how in the world someone could have gained access to that admin tool within WordPress. I soon found the answer here. The article by Core Security Technologies identifies and describes how someone can gain unfettered access to some core admin screens as well as configuration panels for plugins by simply modifying the URL. Specifically – inserting an additional slash before the php file name causes WordPress to bypass the privilege system checks. Not good and so simple it’s really quite horrifying.
After fixing my site, I was still loathe to upgrade WordPress without testing everything first. The phrase “bull in a china shop” comes to mind. So instead, I put in a bit of Apache mod_rewrite magic:
# Remove double (or more) slashes from the URL.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)//(.*)$
RewriteRule . %1/%2 [R=301,L]
So I had Apache protect me while I went about the process of (sanely) upgrading and testing my WordPress installation and plugins. As of today, I’m all happy on version 2.8.3, but I definitely will be paying more attention to security notices from now on.
The high-flying execs at Citigroup caved under pressure from President Obama and decided today to abandon plans for a luxurious new $50 million corporate jet from France…
ABC News has learned that Monday officials of the Obama administration called Citigroup about the company’s new $50 million corporate jet and told execs to “fix it.”
And so did 300 million of my friends apparently (give or take 40%). From the “you have got to be SHITTIN’ me!” section of my brain comes the story of the woe-is-me Citigroup company who received 45 billion dollars in taxpayer bailout money just last year.
Apparently Citi ordered a new Dassault Falcon 7X jet 2 years ago and STILL INTENDS TO BUY IT. That’s 50 million of our tax payer dollars hard at work for us. Meanwhile, even people with good credit are having problems getting loans due to the massive screw up of the oversight when it comes to the hundreds of billions of dollars dispersed to companies like Citi.
And how does Citi justify this? Their excuse is that they are trying to sell two jets they already own because they are 10 years old. I haven’t seen one public comment from any executive at Citi, and you’re likely not going to because no one is stupid enough to stand in front of a voice recorder or microphone and go on record after slapping hardworking Americans in the face.
Is this the kind of government control we have to look forward to? This is why so many people somehow think socialism is better? This is the CHANGE we needed? Give me a friggin break.
Fancy...
Typical Interior
I’m relatively new on Twitter, and so far it’s been a lot of fun watching people interact with each other, getting answers to questions, seeing updates and new information that I wouldn’t hear about till days later, and in general keeping up with friends and their activities. Unfortunately that seems to comprise about 10% of the micro-babble I witness. The other 90% is made up of people who I’m convinced don’t have real jobs and walk around in a bath robe all day.
For the first month, it was funny to see people – seemingly out of nowhere – shout things like “make love not war!” or “find your inner peace and project it to the world”. I even had passing thoughts that it was kinda cool to see positive declarations from complete strangers. Kind of like that Dave Matthews video for “Everyday” where Judah Friedlander walks around and simply gives hugs out to random people that he meets on the street. If you don’t have a warm fuzzy feeling at the end of that video then go see a therapist because you have some issues and you should work through them with a professional.
After about a month the constant flow of positive and uplifting projectiles fired at the Twitterverse became downright annoying. I had to start sifting through the massive amount of verbal refuse that was hitting my twitter client every minute like clockwork. Then curiosity got the best of me, and I started really digging in to the profiles of those folks sending these verbal gems. I started to see a pattern in their bios as terms like these kept jumping out at me:
And what’s more, clicking to the web site they listed in their bio usually takes me to a place on the web that ranks right up there with pyramid schemes and $8 cups of coffee. They’re rip-offs.
I should say that I don’t feel as though every person on Twitter that spouts positive and uplifting messages is full of shit. Some appear to genuinely care and pay attention to their followers and what they’re going through. One such person is @MimiFeelGood. Just this week I announced I was shutting down 360matches.com. MimiFeelGood immediately replied and asked if I was OK – probably because she assumed I was another victim of the economic times we’re living in. I explained that it was simply a personal site that I no longer had time to run due to my new daughter and the demands of my real job. She laughingly replied, and it was nice to know that someone seemingly cared.
But believe me when I say people like MimiFeelGood are a drop of goodness in a sea of disingenious, late-night infomercial style bad acting. Only by constantly looking at those you initially choose to follow and weeding out this kind of junk, will you ever find any real value in Twitter.
I used to say that video games have zero impact on a person’s psyche. Then I started reading stories and even witnessing a case or two of video game addicition. Some people even joke that video games caused their divorce. That’s a little disturbing, but it doesn’t really turn your head and cause any long term contemplation about the negative effect of video games on society.
This, on the other hand, does: A 17 year old boy from Ohio has been convicted of murdering his mother after she and his father took away his Halo 3 video game. In October 2007, the boy shot his mother and father, but the father managed to live. The boy ran away – supposedly with the copy of Halo 3 in hand.
As I look at my 3 month old daughter, I cannot imagine how a child makes it to that kind of state of mind. What happened? Was it some disorder this boy was born with? Was he mistreated in some way – maybe at home or at school? What caused him to go right over the edge and commit MURDER over something as simple as being punished by his parents?
While I acknowledge the fact that video games can be somewhat addictive (I currently play Fable 2 whenever I get a chance), I cannot think that the game itself is to blame for this boy’s behavior. Halo 3 is not even what I would consider a violent game. There’s no blood and gore or deviant behavior. It’s the video game equivalent of Star Wars, and what kid was messed up by seeing Star Wars? None that I’m aware of.
Every time I see a story like this, it makes me wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see what went wrong with this young man, partly because I’m interested in the science of it and partly because I have a daughter that I hope stays just as perfect as she is now.
You can read the full story at CNET.
Loading ...Wired reports that an 18 year old kid hacked Twitter and gained access to multiple accounts including Britney Spears and Barack Obama. Not only did he do it, but he described how he did it and even made a video about it!
This is a major bummer. iPhone Atlas is reporting that AT&T has no plans to allow you to use the iPhone 3G as a cellular modem tethered to your laptop to provide an Internet connection. I used to have a Motorazr that was on the 3G network and LOVED the fact that I could get an Internet connection on my laptop anytime I had cellular service. As much as I love my iPhone, the lack of Dial Up Networking (DUN) is enough to make me sigh in disgust.
There are methods for tethering the current iPhone, and I don’t doubt that ambitious hackers out there will come up with a way to tether the upcoming iPhone 3G. I had shied away from doing anything to my iPhone not strictly supported by Apple and that would risk additional charges on my AT&T bill. However, this news might be enough to push me over the edge and into an iPhone crackdown.
Time Warner has decided to experiment with a new kind of tiered pricing in some markets. Customers will have their amount of monthly data transfer capped at a certain number of Gigabytes depending on the plan they choose. For example, a lower plan includes a download speed of 768 Kbps and limits you to 5 Gigabytes of total data transfer for the month for a total of $29.95. To put it in perspective, I download a game demo from Xbox Live and it’s 1 Gigabyte MINIMUM. Now think about downloading movies. Those are anywhere from 3 to 5 Gigabytes each. So you’ve paid $29.95 for 1 to 1.5 movie downloads. I hope you didn’t have any other planned activities on the Internet that month.
The largest plan gives the customer download speed of 15 Mbps and a total of 40 Gigabytes for $54.90. Admittedly, 15 Mbps is one fast ass connection, but I can burn through 40 Gigabytes in no time at that speed. So what Time Warner is telling me is that I’ll love my connection for the little bit of time that I can actually use it that month. They’re also telling me I’m a putz if I sign up for this.
For comparison’s sake, let’s look at my current provider who is a local provider operating in a city of 80,000 people. I’m getting 3 Mbps for $25 per month with no limit on data transfer. It’s reliable. Their customer service is great. I have zero complaints.
The only way I can see Time Warner getting away with this is due to the very nature of the broadband availability for a given customer. Usually, you only have 1 to 3 options to choose from. You basically have to go with whatever you can get and makes the most sense.
So I’m watching the news this morning, and I hear about an ad campaign by Absolut where they have redrawn the United States / Mexico borders. Apparently this was a very targeted ad campaign in the Quién magazine, but of course it leaked out and now everyone knows about it. I haven’t dug into this in detail so I’m not 100% of the campaign message that Absolut was attempting to send. It appears that they’re simply trying to increase sales in Mexico by displaying a map that hearkens back to the days before the United States populated the west.
Regardless of the true nature of the campaign, surely Absolut could see the American backlash coming a mile away. I mean – use your freakin heads guys. You know Americans will get the ire up if we think you’re insulting us. In the future, be aware of the tripwire that is America’s sensitivity to such things.
Are you one of those individuals that cannot seem to determine the appropriate usage of the Reply-All button? Do you have trouble simply finding it? Maybe it’s too close to the Reply button, and you get confused? Maybe you’re just a sadistic, evil person who likes to make it hard on the person who sent you and other recipients the original email? If you answered yes to any of those questions then you are on my list, and I’d love to discuss options for helping you adjust to using the Reply-All button effectively – preferably in a dark alley with your hands tied behind your back and a blindfold over your face.
In case you can’t tell, failing to use that button is one of my biggest pet peeves. It takes me from zero to asshole at an alarming rate of speed. When it comes to email there is nothing worse than having to type all the recipients over and over again every time you reply to the thread. I copied those recipients for a reason dammit! Leave them on there!
I also hate being one of the recipients who were removed from the email. Inevitably the original sender won’t recognize that fact, and the thread will continue for half the day. Eventually I reply to the last one I received and ask if any progress has been made only to find out that I’ve missed 10 important points and now have to play catch up.
I vote that we remove the Reply button entirely. You have two choices: reply to everyone or forward the email only to the person you want to read your message. Alternatively you can reply to everyone and manually remove the people you don’t want to see your message. Either way it keeps me from having to type recipients over and over again and decreases the chance that I might just go insane on someone.
Reply button idiots – you’ve been warned.
It’s finally over – all but the crying. OK, I’m actually finished crying, too. Notre Dame defeated Stanford in the final game of the season to end everything with a 2 game winning streak. Of course, the other win was over Duke, and that’s nothing to really brag about.Charlie Weiss has some work to do folks. Apparently he’s bringing in the coaching staff from the New England Patriots to help him analyze everything that went wrong this season. I say carry on – you need all the help you can get. Hell, bring in their cheerleaders while you’re at it. Any and every opinion is welcome at this point. Let’s just hope that #1 recruiting class that everyone likes to talk about isn’t reduced to a third string kicker and a glorified water boy based on the results of this season. I’m not sure that recruiting class matters anyway. Look at all the hype surrounding Jimmy Clausen, Armando Allen, Lamarcus Aldridge and others. It just goes to show you that a lot of perceived talent isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Apparently it’s worth 2 wins over losing teams.I’m sure I’ll be excited and fired up to watch my favorite team kick off the 2008 season next fall, but right now I’m just bitter. So I say “no thanks” to the Notre Dame apparel my wife wants to buy me for Christmas. I say “not going to happen” to Fighting Irish office accessories and golf club head covers. I say “good day madam!” to coffee cups and pennants. I need time off to recover and find my happy place again.In the meantime, I’ll be gearing up to watch our Arkansas Razorbacks take on Missouri in the Cotton Bowl. Happy bowl games everyone!
Houston Nutt – the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks football team – has decided to leave and go to Ole Miss to take over head coaching duties for the Rebels. All I can say is…”bummer”. Nutt has had a nice ten year history at Arkansas, making several appearances in the Top 25 and winning two SEC Western Division Championships. His latest triumph was a win over the LSU Tigers who were then the #1 team in the nation.
I never really have understood the Arkansas public when it comes to their lack of support for Nutt. Sure he makes some questionable calls on the field from time to time, but every coach in the nation does that. He’s had some troubles off the field concerning former recruits who have left and text messages to a lady who was not his wife. I don’t really consider that when it comes to his success as a head coach; however, Nutt certainly does. In his ESPN interview concerning his reasons for departure, Nutt makes it clear that the criticism and lack of support from the Arkansans drove him to pursue other opportunities. Way to go folks. Smooth move.
In reality, I’m going to miss his playbook more than I am his coaching prowess. The Razorbacks have been a lot of fun to watch the past couple of years – especially with Darren McFadden in the backfield and quarterbacking the “Wild Hog” offense. McFadden will be off to the NFL next year, but we should still have an exciting running game with Felix Jones and Michael Smith.
The big question is who will replace him? The media indicates Arkansas would love to have Lane Kiffin – the head coach for the Oakland Raiders. I would be surprised if Coach Kiffin comes to Arkansas considering he’s only been with the Raiders for a season and is the youngest head coach in the NFL.
I really wish we had a more solid position and plan for the future before we ran Houston Nutt out of Arkansas. There’s going to be a lot of egg on a lot of faces if the Razorbacks aren’t very, very successful in the next two years.
