“Harry potter loves hottie lover, who loves mighty shocker poker.”
Spam for yet another penis pill site (are there really people in the world who honestly believe that taking a pill can make one’s penis bigger? For real?), but the poetry is quite nice.
Come, let me introduce you to my mighty shocker poker!
Okay, here’s the scoop. We’ll be getting together for tapas (which I have no idea what that is) at 8 PM on Monday. The info:
Cafe Iberico (Tapas)
739 N Lasalle Dr
Chicago, IL 60610
PH: 312-573-1510
reservation will be under the name – Franklin.
Hope to see you guys there!
Leaving for Chicago this evening, and I have the paralyzing fear that I’m forgetting something. Spent last night frantically packing: Toothbrush, check. Clothes, check. Camera, check. Floggers, check. Handcuffs, check. Rope, check. Needles, check. Shampoo, check. Crops, check. Njoy probe, check.
It’s going to be a very busy trip. There are a bunch of you folks I’d like to see, and dayo and I were thinking about a big dinner get-together thing on Monday. scathedobsidian, amorsalado, purplebard, does that work for you? (I already know cunningminx won’t be there.) Anyone else on my flist in the Chicago area interested?
We’re also planning to be at GD on both Friday and Saturday night. (whee!) Also, looking forward to spending a bit of time with sulenda, who charmed my socks off last time I was there. (whee!)
And oh, such evil as has never been seen under the sun must needs be done to dayo, oh my yes. Mad scientist jacket and rubber gloves, check.
But I still feel like I’m forgetting something…
[EDIT] minniethemoocha nailed it. I forgot my phone charger! Frack! Now I have to stop by the apartment again on the way to the airport.
This has been a hella productive past few days, and I am well and truly pleased.
The first chapter of the book on polyamory is done, finished, put a fork in it. Proposals have been sent out. Chpter 2 is started. Chapter 3 is halfway done.
Downed the first two bosses in Serpentshrine Caverns and the first two bosses in Tempest Keep with my new raiding guild. My mage rocks like a rocky thing. It’s just a pity she’s Alliance.
Got a surprise phone call on Friday. The attacks against iPower Web, which are not only ongoing but are getting more sophisticated (since I wrote that last, the number of compromised iPower sites has surged again), are coming to the attention of iPower’s customers. I received a phone call from a woman whose site had been hacked (twice!), and she had iPower on the phone when she called me.
The tech support monkeys at iPower told her that–get this–there’s no vulnerability on their servers, and that her account was compromised because the attackers brute-forced her FTP password. Which was…err, sixteen characters, both letters and numbers, long.
*blink*
Anyway, she gave them the what-for and pulled all her sites off iPower. Maybe if they start losing enough customers, they’ll fix their damn security.
And on the subject of Web sites, I’ve updated mine. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I have a book in print and can’t keep tinkering with it.
Last night, David and I tried playing as a team against six computer opponents in Age of Empires II. High difficulty, lowest resource setting. It was a humiliating debacle. We well and truly got our asses handed to us. Barely made it into the Imperial Age before the computer’s armies closed around us and systematically scraped us off the map.
In two weeks I’ll be in Chicago; planning to be there from the 19th through the 24th. Looking forward to spending time with dayo and scathedobsidian, I know you’ll be around. amorsalado, purplebard, will you guys be available?
It’s been sitting on my counter since I moved. Yes, I swear there is a reason for it. The stuff in the bowl is barley. Yes, I swear there’s a reason for that, too.
…I installed a copy of the old-school (circa 1997) real-time strategy game Age of Empires II on David’s computer, then networked his computer with mine.
I suspect neither of us will be sleeping tonight. “Now, watch! Watch as I smash your village with my siege onagers of DOOM! Hear the wailing of your women and children; they are as music to my ears!”
Quote of the day (via Shelly):
“You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not, however, entitled to your own facts.”
And finally, via physicsduck, recreation for people who think that base jumping is too boring and safe. Dear God. I can’t believe that this actually worked, and nobody died.
Got nearly everything moved to the new apartment, and I’ll be finishing the last of the stuff today. I’m moving into a (much) larger apartment located perhaps two hundred feet from my current place, and for the first time in my adult life I’ll have a roommate who isn’t a lover.
That ought to be interesting.
Anyway,the new place is far larger than the old, and ideally set up for hosting gatherings–something I used to do all the time but haven’t really had the space for in years.
So David (the roommate) and I are planning a hosewarming party sometime in the next few weeks. I’ll be in Chicago the weekend of June 20th, and will be playing host to the lovely zaiah during the first week in July, but other than that have no concrete plans. Anyone (a) intersted in attending and (b) have any preferences for when?
[Edit]: I’ll also be camping with Shelly, Fritz, datan0de, and femetal the second weekend in July, so that’s out too.
So there’s a pick-your-fetish meme floating around; I got it via timestheyare. Cut for bigness. Strangely, the list omits many things it shouldn’t, so I’ve taken the liberty of adding a whole bunch of stuff on the end.
Clicky to see what kind of pervert Franklin is…
So the past few weks have been rough on Microsoft and on Adobe. First, a flaw in Microsoft SQL Server allows ASP sites to be compromised by a general SQL injection attack; then a flaw in the Adobe Flash player allows a miscreant to hijack the Web browsers of people with the Flash plugin installed.
In both cases, the vulnerabilities have been exploited to try to redirect surfers to a Web site at www.dota11.cn, which hosts a malicious script that tries to infect users’ computers with a virus.
That’s the old news.
The funny news–and believe me, I think this is fucking hysterical–is that one of the Web sites clobbered by the SQL injection attack is redmondmag.com, a Web site that is “the independent voice of the Microsoft IT community.” It’s a pro-Microsoft, look-how-great-we-are “news” site that has been so massively infected that…
uh…
…well, if you Google it, Google gives you a “this site may harm your computer” warning.
Many of the infected Web pages are pages about computer security–or, at least, apologies for Microsoft products masquerading as articles on computer security.
I know, I know, the real assholes here are the hackers, but still…goddammit, I can’t stop laughing.
And it gets harder when ISPs are aware of security problems on their network but don’t care. And believe it or not, I’m not talking about iPower this time.
Actual IM transcript from a conversation with xmission.com:
Tacit: You are hosting a phish.
Tacit: ftp://webmaster:webmaster@204.228.142.40/.ws/eBayISAPIi.dll
catalyst: chill, you could send a notification to abuse@xmission.com or to phish@ebay.com or whatever they have now
Tacit: Sent it two weeks ago.
Tacit: And a week ago.
Tacit: No response, phish still active.
Tacit: Two weeks is a long time.
Tacit: Your abuse@ address appears to be routed straight to /dev/null.
catalyst: I’m not an xmission employee, so I can’t help, just thought I’d recommend some alternatives
rostrax: Abuse is a valid e-mail address and it is looked at.
rostrax: That would be my suggestion on what to do.
Tacit: Again?
Tacit: How many times do you think I should send the same email to abuse@xmission.com before I conclude that xmission supports and condones hacks and phishes on their network?
rostrax: How many times have you sent it?
Tacit: Four.
Tacit: First one two weeks ago.
rostrax: I cannot speak for our abuse team, but I’m sure they’ve looked into it
Tacit: If they’ved looked into it, and it’s still active, what conclusion would you draw from that?
Tacit: 204.228.142.40 is on your network, yes?
rostrax: It is one of the IP’s we have yes.
Tacit: And if you click on the above link, you would agree that it is definitely an eBay phish, yes?
rostrax: You have to understand business’ have certain ways of handling these things. It may take some time. Please be patient with us, if you could send another e-mail I would appreciate it greatly. Also cc it to rostrax [at] xmission.com
Tacit: I do understand that businesses operate certain ways; I run one myself. Two weeks to handle a phish? Even China Netcom deals with phish sites faster…
rostrax: I’m unsure of our particular policy, but if you can send the e-mail and cc me on it, I will look into it on Tuesday
—
Edit: It gets better. Apparently, this phish has been active on Xmission’s network since at least April 9th.