In 1997 I set up an e-mail account to support several software products I’d written for my (now-former) company. Because customers and potential customers needed to be able to find it easily, I put it on the company web page too. Predictably, it became an instant spam magnet. I couldn’t trust automated spam filters (when …
No, I’m not talking about blogs about cars. I’m talking about pseudo-blogs that are obviously completely automated, collecting entries about certain subjects from other blogs and linking to them. Geek Drivel has had three such hits so far; I’m letting them stay linked for now, while I try to figure out what their purpose is. …
E-mail is a wonderful invention. I’ve been using it since 1987 or thereabouts, when one of my uncles gave me a 300 baud acoustic modem that I could plug into my Sinclair QL, and I discovered the local FidoNet node. However, this wonderful innovation started becoming a burden about a decade ago — that’s when …
‘Tis the only comfort of the miserable to have partners in their woes. — Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra When last we left our intrepid Linux explorer, he had just tamed the Beast with the Blue Tooth to win through, at long last, the dread Jungle of Double Vision. Tired but satisfied, basking in the twitters …
Continue reading ‘The OS Wars II: Modem Malfeasance and Wireless Woes’ »
It seems that the “family member” spam that I’d talked about a couple days ago was a malware attempt, as well as (probably) a probe to confirm e-mail addresses.
More spam today, with a very similar modus operandi as yesterday’s bogus greeting card message. If you want to see the message itself, you can find a two-year-old copy here, word for word. The only difference is that my copy actually linked to a different .COM site with a nonsense name, though the visible text …
Continue reading ‘“The United States National Medical Association”’ »
What I actually received was the message below, with the above-quoted subject line. It smelled fishy. I’ve gotten these greeting-card messages before, but they’ve always included the name of the person sending the message. If the site didn’t have the person’s name, then how would it know that it was a family member? And what’s …
Continue reading ‘“You’ve received a postcard from a family member!” Yeah, right!’ »
Pity the aptly-named Christopher Woods, an unfortunate fellow who had a health drink and woke the next day “with an erection that would not subside.” Who needs a pill that will make you “harder than Chinese algebra” (in the words of the great comedian Robin Williams), when you can simply down a health drink that’s …
Continue reading ‘“Priapic litigant sues health drink outfit”’ »
Where do these spammers come from, outer Mongolia? Wherever it is, they certainly don’t speak English there. I got this one today, with the above subject line: Got a little hitch in your sex life, we can put it in the helve easily! Our remedy will make you really indefatigable lover in a wink of …
Continue reading ‘“Bigger thing you have – nicer girl like it”’ »
Another technology from lots of different science fiction stories, vat-grown synthi-meat has finally put in an appearance! Forget green eggs and ham. Here comes green ham and eggs! 😉