Worm turns on Microsoft Web servers
By now, you've heard all about that allegedly Chinese worm trying (and failing) to destroy whitehouse.gov, but taking down lots of DSL routers in the process.
Even here at Fortress Fusion, we noticed 108 entries in our failure log yesterday for the particular file the IIS-based worm tries to use for its denial-of-service attack (all together now: "Hooray for Apache!").
Slashdot is running a fun contest to predict the headlines in the Saturday New York Times and Washington Times on the attack. Be the most accurate and win, um, a t-shirt (hey, they're geeks, whadaya expect?).
The day the ISP died
Geoff Duncan, technical editor at TidBITS was one happy little clam when he finally got broadband to his home office. Until...
But like all happiness, my broadband experience was fleeting. After about six weeks (and despite my careful research) the broadband ISP shut down with virtually no warning. My network and everything on it (including my personal email, my client's email, and the services I run for TidBITS and everyone else) dropped off the face of the earth. TidBITS readers might remember a weekend at the beginning of March where many items on the TidBITS home page were inaccessible: that was when my provider went dark, and my blood pressure could be measured on the Richter scale.
Duncan's calmed down a bit since then and his written a common-sense guide to Surviving Your ISP's Darkest Hour.
Via MetaFilter.
07/18/01
Cell-phone users have no shame
The Des Moine Register solicited stories of the most obnoxious cell phone users. They got an earful, from the man yelling at office subordinates while in the stall to the woman negotiating a business deal while in the stirrups at the gynecologist's. But they awarded top honors to the story of a woman who pulled out her phone while buying a bottle of whiskey, a liter of Coke and a box of condoms at a grocery store:
"Yeah, Tony, it's me, I got everything. Is the coast clear?"
Via Fark.
Even Internet consultants can screw up the 'Net
Razorfish, the one-time darling of the black-shirted Internet consulting world, today struggles to get its bottom line in the black. Associated Press reports it managed to give itself a black eye this week, though, by sending out an e-newsletter to a lot of people who didn't want it.
Yes, of course, people told Razorfish they didn't want it by hitting Reply. And yes, of course, the reply-to address was the mailing list itself, which meant everybody kept getting more and more upset by getting more and more complaints in their inbox. As AP reports:
"Why would anyone want to do business with you guys when you can't even get a simple newsletter/mail distribution correct," said one message from a U.S. Navy-based e-mail address, intended for Razorfish but apparently bounced to scores of clients.
Razorfish closed at 51 cents on Wednesday, down from its high of $23 a year ago.
Via Boing Boing.
07/17/01
Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers
For most of us, dot-matrix are the ultimate in high-tech boat anchors: Large, useless, noisy things that just take up space in a storeroom somewhere.
But that's why most of us aren't artists. Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers is a musical piece played entirely with, well, dot matrix printers, as composed and directed by a small artists' collective in Ottawa. Make sure your sound is on, then click on Streams and Downloads.
Via Memepool.
The ultimate cup of coffee
Forget about building a better mousetrap (or for that matter, building a toy car powered by a mousetrap).What you frazzled networking types need, of course, is a better cup of coffee. James Gallas to the rescue! Gallas and partner Gerry Zajac have come up with a way to ensure you get only the finest cup of joe, using red LEDs.
That miracle red beam of light not only ensures that every cup tastes the same, but warns you when the coffee in the pot needs to be tossed.
An optical feedback system utilizes a red light emitting diode (LED) at 680 nm and a photodetector to "measure" the optical strength of the coffee at the onset of the brewing cycle and to automatically control the amount of water used to reach the particular coffee strength you desire. So the need to carefully measure the coffee grinds or water level is eliminated. One simply fills the water reservoir and places some coffee grinds into the basket as normal and then sets the strength of the coffee desired from weak to very strong and the coffee maker does the rest. It will make either a great deal of coffee in the case of weak brew or just a little for "expresso" strength java.
Via Aberrant News.
07/16/01
The solar-powered ISP
You know all those mythical studies about how Internet data centers are responsible for everything from the California energy crisis to tooth decay? Don't blame SolarHost, a Web hosting firm that run entirely off solar power.
Based in Fairfax, Va., the Web hoster says it has enough solar panels to run its server farm and sell power back to the local utility.
Via Memepool.
Everhost
Speaking of unusual hosters, imagine what it must take to host the addictive online game/alternative universe known as Everquest.HostingTech provides an overview of the game and what it takes to support it:
The entire EverQuest (EQ) universe (at present, 40 separate worlds) is run on approximately 1,000 servers. ... As far as the coolest stuff we have, I'd have to say that would be either our Cisco GSR 12012s or our EMC storage devices.
Via rc3.org.
Internet VCer: Oops
Give John Doerr, Silicon Valley venture capitalist extraordinaire, some credit. The man who once called the Internet "the largest legal creation of wealth in the history of the planet," apologized a couple days ago for the statement. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Doerr now acknowledges that was a mistake:By billing wealth over innovation, Doerr says, his oft-repeated quote helped fuel a dot-com frenzy that focused more on a "mercenary" drive to make quick fortunes off Internet start-ups than on incubating businesses with revolutionary technology.
07/16/01
The Lego Palm and the pink fuzzy laptop
From the land of too-much-time comes two startling innovations. Tijger Tsou stripped the guts out of a Palm VII and rebuilt the external controls and case out of Lego blocks:
The infared port actually works! It is merely a piece of clear Lego with the infared dongle hanging out behind it.
If you have an irritable stomach, don't take a look at the Pink Hello Kitty Laptop.
It's pink. It's fuzzy. It has a fluffy mouse with a Hello Kitty on it. Gack!
Both via /usr/bin/girl.
The Microsoft-English dictionary
Richard Forno has compiled the world's first guide to the dialect of English spoken in Redmond, Wash. For example:"Cross-Platform" - (1)(n) - Industry standard definition for a product that runs on multiple computing environments (See "Platform"). (2)(n) - Microsoft's marketing term used to mean a product that runs on any of Microsoft's 'platforms.' (e.g., Microsoft's Java is 'cross-platform' since it runs on Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, and XP.)
Putting a loved one in the home
SatireWire bravely discusses the hows and whys of putting a family member in an Assisted Computing Facility:
For family members, it is often the most difficult and painful decision they will face: to accept that a loved one — a parent, a spouse, perhaps a sibling — is technologically impaired and should no longer be allowed to live independently, or come near a computer or electronic device without direct supervision.
The article comes with a handy guid to 10 warning signs, which include:
After sending someone an email, you phone to tell that someone that you've sent them an email.
You are told about viruses such as ILoveYou and warned not to click the attachments, then the next day you get an ILoveYou email and click on the attachment because, well, it came from someone you know.
Via Aberrant News.
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Tracking down a stolen Mac; Dead C Scrolls; Googlewhacking; How bad is it in the Valley?; Storage lessons from the Wayback Machine; The pub-seeking handheld; Internet gang wars; Outlook XP breaks MIME.
Why should iMac owners have all the eye candy?; Luxo Redux; So you think your job is bad; Google as a DNS replacement? Not so fast; Nokia exec cites stock plunge in speeding-fine appeal; The tragedy of the .coms; The Google parlor game; Some people *like* Steve the Dell Guy; Ban all Microsoft attachments?
Dot-com to bare all; iMac Dance; Wendy's remembers Dave; Search engine bites the dust; Wendy's Web site ignores Dave's death; Geek comic strip; Youngest security expert ever; Spam poetry; Confessions of a hacker; Breathless Apple; Dave Barry does Windows XP.
Dropping everything to vote; The best Apple rumors, ever; Guess Steve Case isn't getting into Harvard; Make your own O'Reilly cover; Boosting your wireless juice; Telnet lives!
This space intentionally left blank (vacation).
The most useless software ever; Is Microsoft getting ready to squash PC vendors?; Excite@Home: The Watergate of the New Economy?; No more 3Com Park. Is CMGI Field next?; Are you an e-bore?; This site'll have you coming and going; Entertainment Weekly's loss of innocence; Ensign Crusher as Entertainer of the Year; Oh, for the old days.
The Museum of Broken Packets; Just in time for Thanksgiving; Tourist Guy found; Why virtual offices suck; A domain ruling that sucks; Hacking the iPod.
Why you shouldn't ship computers via UPS; When .Net requires Java; High-tech grafitti artists; Spam from beyond the grave; New group tries to oversee the whole Internet; Paging Dick Tracy; Students use PDAs to cheat; Windaz for Aussies, Newfies; Another alternative to Passport; A virtual honeynet
Bill Gates: Father of open source; Verizon exec: Monopoly is good; Weird molecule names; E-mail: too much of a good thing?; A cluster of one; More woes for dot-bombers; Spam as weapon in the war on crime; Just when you think the Web can't get any better; Just when you think the Web can't get any worse; More proof I shouldn't be a wiseass; Using your Web logs to ID hacker attacks; Help save the FAQs; Who do you trust, baby?; Powerpuff Girls powerless against virus; Big IP pipe between US, Europe.
The profit of turning thugs into programmers; Work Name Generator; A programmer's lament; The world's best ATM; Are anti-spammers killing people?; Web services and storage; Get your Aerons here; Perl for the XXI-imum century; Microsoft's blocking of non-IE browsers.
Government info taken off the Web since 9/11; Beware hackers who talk too much; A contest you can enter sitting down; Now don't try this in the office; Bob Patterson must die; Finally, a useful 404 page; Tech calls from hell; Teletubbies XP; More XP fun; Anthrax and e-mail; Larry's ID card; World's longest gum-wrapper chain.
Let's drop PDAs on Afghanistan; Voice control? Try grunt control; Spam gets back to business; A content-management portal; Share your system tray with the world; Would you let the recording industry onto your network?; Al Queda's low-tech high tech; 9/11 archive; Shoe company gets open source after all; Pod people, coming soon to a cube near you.
Larry and Scott's dueling ID cards; Cringely: Broadband is dead; The dangers of Photoshop; The dangers of copy protection; Microsoft mining whois for telephone solicitations?; How to REALLY throw a LAN party; Good fences don't make good 'Net neighbors; How Google adapted to 9/11 news; Web services as over-hyped hooey; Why shoe guys shouldn't do open source; Online air hockey.
AT&T waives 9/11 wireless charges for some; Shifting gears; Craig Burton on the Novell/Microsoft suit; In search of the post-PC interface; Vibrating PDAs and wearable phones; Gary Condit's Web site; No, that isn't a real photo of a WTC tourist; How to throw a LAN party; How sucky is your intranet?
For grizzled 'Net veterans; UK ISP forced to pull deceptive ads; Pretty Good encryption controversy; Are you as smart as Miss America?; Really securing your computer; Still lots of insecure IIS servers; Kids, don't try this at home; Anthrax Kills; Larry's national database; Nimda hysteria?
Attack and post-attack items.
999,999,999 bottles of beer on the wall; Finally, a wind-up cell phone; Enough with the ringing!; The VoIP calculator; 802.11b insecurity; Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf explains IOS DHCP; Is ENUM the mark of the devil?; AOL gives user permanent demerit; The Ballmer music video; Cleveland news flash: Y2K was last year.
Re-routing around censorship; Us vs. them in scripting; The boss button; Fighting off the hackers for fun; Peer computing as a weapon of war; Unix poetry; The Windows Fatal Exception Decoder; New Fusion widget: Getting rid of spyware; The sound of 200 cell phones going off at once; Taleban Web site hacked; Hey, sysadmin, remember Sircam?
On the importance of flame wars; Bill Gates sees dead people?; A markup language for grunts and groans; Is Microsoft leaking those Ballmer dance videos?; Good Samaritan not so good?; Steve Ballmer works up a sweat; Open-source wireless cracking; When technology goes too far; Another dumb computer arrest?; Is Cisco Communist?
Moron marketers threaten 'Net users; Finding free wireless access; Complete wastes of time; OS holy war flares in North Carolina; Are programmers weird?; Somebody actually buys an X10 camera; We're number, uh, two!; Those after-hours computer discussions; An entire city running on Linux; Distributed spam fighter under development; Could a Warhol virus infect the entire 'Net in 15 minutes?; Tell AOL what to do with its CDs.
Fusion shatters a myth; Bridging .Net and Java?; AT&T Broadband cuts off non-IIS servers to fight Code Red; Bluetoothless; Tennessee town bites into Apple; And you thought TI-99/4A fans were over the edge; Biometrics coming to your local supermarket; Steve Ballmer a-hootin' and a-hollerin'; Speaking of Web images; Just how far PC prices have fallen; Does Starbucks' CEO get his own wireless strategy?
Crackers getting more sophisticated; Sex and Microsoft Office; The wonders of science, part MXXII; Finally, a useful virus; A shocking game controller; Big Ball of Mud school of programming; Two vitally important new resources; Adobe: Ooops; Eudora Welty, dead at 92; Centralizing Unix administration in Perl; Spellchecking the entire Web.
Worm turns on Microsoft Web servers; The day the ISP died; Cell-phone users have no shame; Even Internet consultants can screw up the 'Net; Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers; The ultimate cup of coffee; The solar-powered ISP; Everhost; Internet VCer: Oops; The Lego Palm and the pink fuzzy laptop; The Microsoft-English dictionary; Putting a loved one in the home.
Saving those all important VoIP calls; This site is a bright idea; Could wireless end messy divorces?; How much will that software really cost you?; Ghosts of failed dot-coms; The spy's guide to securing your Cisco routers; Oprah for Internet czarina?; What's Microsoft doing at an open-source conference?; Like a big pizza pi; Cyber-bullies; Better check your phone bill; Have some birthday pi.
How HP wastes energy to save energy; New toy for the bored and lonely; Weird programming languages; When sponsors are speakers; The case of the disturbing backwards monitor; Congress to ICANN: Drop dead; Yet another video game made into a movie; Smile, you're on Candid (Police) Camera; High-speed hotels; Network Solutions blocking name transfers?
One of the fathers of Usenet dead at 45; Are you ready for insta-spam?; Diary of a site collapse; Skirting the issue; Assimiliating the Web; Trolling for help; Software wars; Rating the rater; True tales from the help desk; How about spam embedded in your mail?
Unix diapers; A beautiful waste of time; A P2P taxonomy; This page is too stupid; Homeless dot-commer bogus?; Whee, Linux is fun!; Blue Screens everywhere; Forget viruses: This fungus eats CDs; Microsoft revises Smart Tags a bit; Homeless dot-commers.
Slashdot crashes the NSA; They may be Smart Tags, but they're not Original Tags; What open source and California wines have in common; Jakob Nielsen no tyro; How to make Windows 2000 really, really secure; Where the Internet begins; A useful computer bug; The clothes make the geek; The end of the Internet; Why PDF bites; Novel use of a wireless phone; Hidden info; When Web sites tell too much.
DSL modems are so '90s; Bye-bye Netscape; Get ready to upgrade those mail servers; The anti-.Net; The real reason to buy a Palm; Anatomy of a DDoS attack; Pain is good.
