Ordering Checks, Revisited

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On the topic of ordering checks… I called them back today, hoping to get some confirmation that I’d actually placed an order. After laboriously entering all of my information — again — the system again cheerfully told me that my last order was placed three years ago, and shipped the next day.

Fortunately, it also provided a new option, an “if you need help…” one. On selecting that, I was immediately connected to a real live human, who immediately spotted the problem and corrected it. She was able to see the information that I’d put in, so I didn’t have to give it all to her again (unlike with many companies). She even told me how much the checks would cost, and when they’d be delivered.

It doesn’t make up for the exceptionally lousy automated system, but it does help.

Sagging Pants: a Major Problem?

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Yesterday I saw an article that said that the Dallas city council was considering banning “saggy pants.” Today I see that they’re not the only ones.

I can fully sympathize with their moral outrage. At a gas station in Virginia, several years ago, I had the misfortune of seeing a brother whose pants were cut so low that the crotch of them was hanging around his ankles. No exaggeration. (I didn’t notice whether his underwear was showing or not, I was too busy staring at the unfortunate apparel itself.)

But despite my personal distaste for it, I have to point out that a person’s choice of clothing, and how he wears it, is constitutionally protected expression. There’s nothing illegal, or even immoral, about having the waistband of your underwear extend further than that of your pants. Bathing suits and shorts cover the same area, often less effectively, and no one expects you modestly to hide them under pants. And plumbers often display even more than that. So long as the strategically important bits are covered, you are (and should be) on the sunny side of the law.

I predict that these attempts at dictating public morality will be struck down by a Supreme Court ruling relatively soon.

It’s a Jungle Out There

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There’s an impression among even savvy Internet users that avoiding the seedier side of the ‘net — porn and pirated software sites, for instance — will protect you from most viruses, Trojan horse programs, and other malware. But while most web-borne malware is from such sites, even sites that should be completely trustworthy, like the Miami Dolphins football team’s, or the Mercury music award site, can be (and have been) compromised.

That’s why smart geeks use Firefox with the NoScript extension, pay careful attention to what information they give out and who it’s really going to, always keep their systems up-to-date, and browse from a Linux system whenever possible.

Even though viruses, Trojan horse programs, and other malware for Linux is growing (though nowhere near as quickly as for Windows, as pointed out on that page), Linux isn’t nearly as vulnerable to it. Even a zero-day vulnerability in a critical Linux system is harder to exploit, and has far fewer security implications, than under Windows, due to the more secure basic design. Quoting Steve Gaines, technical director at Novell: “A Linux desktop fixes the majority of problems associated with Internet access by not giving root access to general end users. Without such access, malware has little or no chance to gain a toehold in the system.”

(I’m also checking out the Firekeeper extension; more on that in a future entry, if it seems to be worth mentioning.)

Be careful out there, friends.

A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on. William S. Burroughs

Spam, spam, spam, spammity spam, spam, spam…

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Sometimes, on a slow day, I look at the spam that I get. Most of it is boring… the same-old same-old. “Best repl1ca w4tches!”, “cheap oem soft shipping //orldwide”, “Viagre Ciali Xanas Valiun have special discount, express ship to all countries”, “Don’t be the ‘little guy’ in the club”. Various phishing messages that wouldn’t fool a village idiot, with subject lines like “necessary to be read!” or “National City corporate customer cervice: your account with us!”. (Yes, it actually said “cervice”.) The only amusing thing about them is the tortured attempts at English. Continue reading ‘Spam, spam, spam, spammity spam, spam, spam…’ »