Attention America! Your President can beat up Our Prime Minister

Please have him come up to do so, anytime. Thanks. Your friend, Canada.

My Favourite "Spam" of the Year

As regular as clockwork (The Chinese clock ... mother!), I get an email from William Lu, the proprietor of the 7th Heaven Café in Yangshuo, China around this time of the year.

I never signed up for this email list, and there's no apparent way to unsubscribe.

I stayed at the 7th Heaven Café earlier this decade, and I guess I gave William my email address. According to some (including me, most of the time), without explicit permission, a commercial email is spam. And while admittedly there is a commercial component to this email, the personal content, the endearing language, and the pure innocence, naivite and unbridled enthusiasm in the face of life's adversarial odds makes this an email I look forward to, and some of the best marketing I have ever encountered. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Frankly, anyone who says difference is a curmudgeonly scrooge in my books.

Dear friend and family,

We wish you a Merry Christmas and happy new year !

Time is flying! Here we are still live well in this small and beautiful Yangshuo ! Yangshuo is still a small tourism town with a rapidly developing in these years. And this year we experienced a difficult year of 2008 which we except a heavy harvest year!

At the begin of the year, we get a 50 year once cold winter and it last almost a month with the tempreture around 0 degree – 8 degree. The Road was frozed which the transportation was blocked everywhere, a lot plants were died which farmer never except that cold weather.

A lot of Electrical poles were broken down as the heavy snow ice frozen alone the line; later on it was the polical event in Tibet on 14th, March, then the Earthquake in Sichuang wenchuang county that bring us a lot sorrow anddown all the market in china, later on it is the Olympic Game in BeiJing for a month, finaly, when the Game is finished and we are all in peace and get a nice market for the Great second Gold Week – National holiday ! hahaha…

then come the bad news on the financial crisis of all over the world ! So how is the year of next year of 2009 – the Great Buffalo Year ! We are looking forward the buffalo will leading us a picking up year…

Personally, we are doing well and had a quite balance year on Business and built a web with the help from friends peter, Fengzi Ian and Xiao Qiu at: www.snowlionresort.com for the newly open Snow Lion Riverside Resort. Our 7thheaven café has a great improve from the food at western style with fresh bread each day and very nice sweet Chocolate cake and Cheese cake.

Cloud 9 Chinese Restaurant always do a great job at Sichuang and local food, it has been a very popular place to go and the amazing thing that you can learn whatever you eat there – a Chinese cooking class there with an English Speaker, Famous cook Martin Yan was cooking with our teacher Linda! We are going to move the cooking class in the countryside in 2009 at Snow Lion Riverside Resort, Hope we can make it!

For our Family lu, our two daughters are health and smart growing, We are very happy for having them around and enjoying teaching them by books and life skills. Now Christina is still in Kidsgarden and in next term, we will send her for the first grade in primary school. Sarah the little one is a strong girl and she could walk at 10 and half month old and now almost 14months, she only can speak few words clear.But she is stout and smart ,walking like Panda bear;, Christina can walking and speaking at same time when she was 12 months old ! We love them very much and here comes some photos in the website about us for sharing the happiness with all and really hope you can keeping in touch update recent news from your side! We miss you and really hope to hear from you and possible to visit you soon !

We wish you all fine and have a Great Year of Buffalo of Chinese! Of course we are not forget to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy new year !

All the best to you and family with love!

Yours

William, family lu and teams de 7th heaven, Cloud 9 and Snow Lion Resort

www.snowlionresort.com

Spamhaus Canadian ISP SBL Listings

Spamhaus' SBL is great, but looking things up by ISP can be difficult. To that end, I provide the following list of URLs of Canadian ISPs with SBL listings

accesscomm.ca
aei.ca
allstream.com
amanah.com
assertivenetworks.net
bell.ca
canaca.com
cgocable.net
clearcable.ca
cybersurf.com
cyberus.ca
data-fortress.com
eastlink.ca
eicat.ca
globalacces.ca
globetrotter.net
golden.net
gov.bc.ca
gt.ca
gtcomm.net
hurontel.on.ca
hydroonetelecom.com
igs.net
ilap.com
iweb.ca
juch-tech.com
linkline.com
lino.com
magma.ca
mohawk.ca
navigata.net
neteasy.ca
netfirms.com
netnation.com
oricom.ca
personainc.ca
primus.ca
rackforce.com
radiant.net
sasktel.net
securenet.net
shawcable.net
softcomca.com
telecomottawa.com
telus.com
thtel.ca
trends.ca
tucows.com
uniserve.com
uwindsor.ca
vdn.ca
velcom.com
videotron.ca
vif.net
vphos.net
w3media.net
wiznet.ca
zid.com

Circuit City to shut 155 stores to preserve cash

UPDATE: Well, that didn't work out so good - CC just filed for bankruptcy protection


From Marketwatch, November 03, 2008:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Circuit City Stores Inc. said Monday it's shutting 155 U.S. underperforming stores, reducing future store openings and renegotiating leases to help preserve cash after its liquidity deteriorated and vendors tightened the struggling electronics retailer's payment terms.

The closings will result in a reduction of about 17% in the company's U.S. work force, Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City

As a result of the closings, Circuit City's exiting U.S. 12 markets, and management's considering all available options and alternatives to restructure its business.

New World Order

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Fox news on Obama Election - Not What You Might Think

http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3177862&referralPlaylistId=949437d0db05ed5f5b9954dc049d70b0c12f2749

see more pwn and owned pictures

Consumer Online Spending Growth Slows to 6%

From Direct, November 01, 2008:

E-commerce growth has declined for five consecutive months in the U.S., according to the marketing research firm comScore Inc. Spending in some product categories has actually shrunk.

Online sales grew 6% overall during the third quarter. That’s down from a 13% rate of rate in the second quarter and a 12% rate of growth in the first quarter, compared to the same quarters in 2007.

The rate of online sales growth for September at 5% was the lowest since comScore began tracking e-commerce sales in 2001.

Symantec plans layoffs as sales fall short

From The Register, October 31, 2008:

Symantec has announced plans to cut its wage bill by 4.5 per cent in a move likely to means hundreds of people will lose their jobs with the security and storage software firm.

Chief financial officer James Beer also detailed previously announced plans to outsource work done by its IT and finance departments during a conference call discussing disappointing financial results.

Palin Pranked

More animals wearing costumes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/31/halloween-costumes-for-do_n_139841.html

Happy Hallowe'en! Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!

Happy Hallowe'en! Click on the pic for MORE

Yahoo! Phishing Exploit

Netcraft reports:


Ongoing Phishing Attack Exposes Yahoo Accounts

The Netcraft toolbar community has detected a vulnerability on a Yahoo website, which is currently being used to steal authentication cookies from Yahoo users — transmitting them to a website under the control of a remote attacker. With these stolen details, the attacker can gain access to his victims' Yahoo accounts, such as Yahoo Mail.

The attack exploits a cross-site scripting vulnerability on Yahoo's HotJobs site at hotjobs.yahoo.com, which currently allows the attacker to inject obfuscated JavaScript into the affected page. The script steals the authentication cookies that are sent for the yahoo.com domain and passes them to a different website in the United States, where the attacker is harvesting stolen authentication details.


I have pointed out on this very blog that access to gmail and Yahoo! accounts is extra-valuable since they potentially have 'wallet' functions appended to them.

StrongMail Lays Off 25% of Staff

Oct 21, 2008 1:38 PM, By Ken Magill

According to a well-placed source who asked to remain anonymous, the cuts were across the board, including in sales, customer support and engineering.

News of StrongMail’s cuts comes as reports circulate the Internet that high-tech investment firm Sequoia Capital called an all-hands meeting of its CEOs recently to tell them the country is in for a long recession and they must slash spending and get cash-flow positive if they want to survive.

Yahoo firing 1,500 workers; 3Q profit falls 64 pct (AP)

Posted on Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:56PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. will fire at least 1,500 workers to cope with a crumbling economy that dented its third-quarter profit and turned up the heat on the slumping Internet company's management as investors stew over a missed opportunity to sell to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion.

The purge outlined Tuesday represents a 10 percent reduction in Yahoo's payroll of about 15,000 employees. It's the second time in nine months that Yahoo has resorted to mass layoffs in what so far has been an ineffectual effort to rebound from a financial funk that has left its stock price near a 5 1/2-year low.

Yahoo's housecleaning, to be completed by the end of the year, provides the latest example of how a credit crisis that has already rocked banks and retailers is starting to rattle Silicon Valley, the nation's high-tech heartland.

Videotron: Choke Point

I have Videotron for T.V., Internet & Telephony.

They have some flakey equipment somewhere between them and me, so everything has been down down down today. Including my doorbell, which rings on my home phone line.

It has been a rather quiet day, spent reading and listening to the radio.

Radio snippets

I was just channel surfing and heard a great snippet 'It literally blew my mind'. Wow.

This reminded me: A while back when I was in Colorado, and I heard a radio announcer who went into his bona fides, having interviewed Ringo, and Yoko Ono, following him having played Imagine. He then went on a rant talking about Mark David Chapman, whom he asserted was 'walking around' and whom he thought should be put to death.

I had to wonder how he rationalized capital punishment with Lennon's political leanings. Quite the logical leap.

Just for the record, the only place MDC is walking around is the Attica pennitentiary exercise yard.

Me, @ the APWG Conference

Nigerian Spammer/scammers sporting a shiny new pair of brass ones

Someone I knew some years ago was in the boiler-room scam business. They'd fleece someone (over-priced office supplies coupled with the promise of a fantastic gift or chance to win something huge, but non-existent), then call back a while later impersonating an FBI agent following up on the scam, to con even more money out of them.

So anyway, I've heard that the Nigerians adopted a similar tactic, but don't recall having received as explicit an offer such as this one:

SCAM COMPENSATION OFFICE DEPARTMENT

FIDELITY BANK NIGERIA PLC SCAM COMPENSATION OFFICE DEPARTMENT
ECOWAS NATIONS STATE/UNITED NATIONS
2008 SCAM VICTIMS COMPENSATIONS PAYMENTS.

YOUR REF/PAYMENTS CODE: FDB/06654 FOR $150,000 USD ONLY.

This is to bring to your notice that our bank (FIDELITY BANK PLC ) is delegated by the ECOWAS/UNITED NATIONS in Central Bank to pay victims of scam $150,000 (One Hundred And Fifty Thousand Dollars Only). You are listed/approved for this payment as one of the scammed victims to be paid this amount.

On this faithful recommendations, want you to alert you that during the last U.N. meetings held last week Thursday at ABUJA (WEST AFRICA),it was accessed/accumulated of reported cases of fraud that the money lost by various individuals to Africans scam artists operating in syndicates all over the world today is over $239 Million United States Dollars in year 2007 to fraud in USA alone.

http://www.techspot.com/news/29644-US-Citizens-lost-239-million-from-Internet-

fraud-in-2007.html

In other to compensate victims, the ECOWAS/UNITED NATIONS is now paying victims of such scam $150,000(One Hundred And Fifty THOUSAND DOLLARS EACH) in accordance with the UNITED NATIONS recommendations.

The payments are to be remitted by FIDELITY BANK PLC NIGERIA as corresponding paying bank under funding assistance by CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA. Benefactor of this compensation award will have to be first cleared by FIDELITY BANK and confirmed as a victim from Africa Scam before scam payment can be effected. We shall feed you with further modalities as soon as we get response from you on how you can receive your compensation payment award.

Send a copy of your response via email or call your remittance officer quoting your PAYMENT CODE NUMBER(FDB//06654).

NAME: MR.FRANK EDOBOR
SCAMMED VICTIM/REF/PAYMENTS CODE:
FDB//06654 $150,000 USD.
TEL :+234 80850 95605
+234 80633 62884
Email: scam_victimpayment2008@yahoo.com.hk

Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Doris Udoh
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER

Michael Moore's New Wankfest 'Slacker Uprising'

Wow. I've been a Mike fan for almost 15 years, starting back in the Roger & Me and T.V. Nation Days. I even went to the taping of the pilot fo The Awful Truth, in New York city. That was pretty cool.

But one thing always rankled. The Cult of Mike undercurrent that played out in a lot of his work. Now with 'Captain Mike Across America' aka 'Slacker Uprising', Moore has dispensed with any pretense of this being anything but him.

A film about his failed 2004 campaign to get young people to register to vote show whistle stops on his 60-city tour to small-and-big-town America. Actually what it shows is a lot of Michael Moore walking onto a number of stages to loud cheers, sometimes sycophantically introduced by a rockstar or other luminary of some sort.

Moore has done a great job of calling bullshit on what is wrong in American society for years, but this is unwatchable. Moore lumbers onto stages, the only differentiating factor being his occasional change of baseball cap, and exhorts young slackers to register to vote in exchange for gifts of free underwear and Ramen noodles. One thing I also got from the bit of the film I was able to stomach is 'George Bush is bad' Check. Got that, thanks.

I couldn't get more than 35 minutes into this self-congratulatory clap-trap before losing all interest - perhaps you can last longer, if so, it is a free* download off've iTunes for the next couple of weeks.

I'm sure there are those on "Downsize This" the Moore fanboy board who will be find this wankfest laudible, but bottom line I think he's gone over the edge; his laudible work from Columbine and days prior is long gone, all we are left with is Moore big-upping himself. Yawn.

* Free, that is, for Americans and Canadians, don't try sharing this with anyone who isn't incontinent (sic), he'll sue your ass.

Canadian Do Not Call List Website doesn't want calls

Photo says a thousand words, eh?

How to become wealthy

This is no get-rich-quick scheme, it might take some time to do, but seems effective.

1) Become the leader of a G8 country
2) After your political career is over, go on the lecture circuit.

$450 to hear Tony Blair? You must be joking!

Ken Magill's alter-ego: "Stupid Poopyhead"

Would the real Slim Shady please stand up?

Ken Magill is Stupid Poopyhead!! That’s right! Magill gives a “Heath Ledger”-quality performance as the arch-villain in the newest movie (in my mind) about the wussiest of all super-heroes, Spamfighter.

Sitting in his spam-cave, Spamfighter has DNSBL, and WHOIS, and ARIN and rDNS lookups strapped tightly into his utility belt, with Spamfighter-boy at his side, and Spamfighter-girl knocking down his door for a booty-call when he should be prowling the darkened streets of Gotham, looking for evil-doers. Except his Mom won’t lend him the Spam-mobile tonight, and Magill has once again sent one of his infamous calling cards.

So here’s the thing: When Ken retired from writing about email to become the business editor of The New York Sun in 2003-2005, his time in Arkham Asylum as it were, and we thought we were done with him.

But no, he was biding his time, and took the nod from Eminem only to return to DM News to start his crime spree afresh! (Make note of the timing - do you really think it was accidentally coincident??)

Now this looks like a job for me
So everybody just follow me
'Cause we need a little controversy,
'Cause it feels so empty without me

Come to think of it, has anyone seen Slim and Ken in the same room at the same time? Talk about alter-egos!

Ken's latest crime? A screed called “You Ask for Garbage, You Get it” which actually should be the name of the rss feed for his column, not merely the title of the piece; Contained within is this devious bomblet:

“Double opt-in—I am purposely using this term rather than the others because it’s the one marketers use most and, more importantly, it drives anti-spammers nuts—is the one foolproof way to make sure e-mail addresses people use to sign up for a list are real and accurate.”

Woah! Magill is attempting to divert the good and the just from their appointed rounds by intentionally using wrong terms. My GOD! Are there no limits to depths to the evil insanity this villain will plumb? He must be brought to justice, and I’m just the man to do it!

Ken's crime is the one of conflation, one of using a too-broad a brush, nay, a roller, nay nay, a paint-gun to tar us all under the same rubric.

A cigar-chomping bit of nastiness, Ken likes to dive into the NANAE sewer and pull out a few ‘nuggets’, hold them up high and proclaim from the highest mountain tops “Look at this shit”.

Memo to Ken: You’ve got a piece of poo in your hand. Go wash up before dinner.

OK, enough of this overly drawn-out framing of this piece (forgive me, I had fun writing it).

Ken intentionally tweaks the nose of anti-spammers dropping the phrase ‘Double Opt-in’, in the midst of a wonderful piece on using that protocol to confirm subscriptions to email lists.

However, Ken fails to discriminate between various anti-spammers, lumping them all into the same pile. Sure, there are spittle-emitting community members like some found at NANAE, a slightly better grade of individual found at SPAM-l, and the denizens of Zorch, who are a couple of steps up from that.

I, for one, don't care what you call it, just do it, be it confirm or double your opt-in.

But this does beg the question ‘what is an anti-spammer’?

Without the efforts of hard-working volunteers and professionals who now lend their hand to ‘the fight’ against what is very much organized crime, there would be no email infrastructure upon which marketers could ply their trade, let alone one that can be used for one-to-one communications. Sure, some anti-spammers are jackasses, just as there are some marketers who are total dickweeds. But to attribute the fuckery of the one to the many is just plain wrong.

Responsible marketers should have, and do have the admittedly enlightened self-interest of fighting spam just as energetically and vociferously as the most angry, petulant, frothiest-of-mouthed card-carrying NANAE member. In a couple of weeks, the Messaging Anti-abuse Working Group, (the acronym for which my colleague and friend JD Falk rightly notes sounds like something Godzilla might emit: “MAAWG! MAAWG!”) will meet in Florida In September. Talk about selfless bravery – the midst of Hurricane season and we are meeting to talk about spam!

The group will be co-meeting with The Anti-spyware Coalition; the primary concern and focus of the meetings being botnets; bringing together investigators and technical experts from all over the world to coordinate efforts to put an end to this scourge. It brings them all into the same rooms as (gasp!) marketers. See for yourself who the members of MAAWG are.

No, MAAWG is not always the easiest of alliances, antis and marketers in the same rooms is sometimes a tense mating, but a necessary one nevertheless.

Bottom line: Everyone with a stake in email needs to ante up, stop the infighting and ... and ... "can't we all just get along??"

We must all be grateful for the efforts of spamfighters and actively support them. Adopt best practices in their totality, make donations to organizations like CAUCE.org (yes, I'm the Executive Director).

Without MAAWGers, and without the NANAEites and even without people who get all upset because Confirmed Opt-in is now, in popular nomenclature, "Double Opt-in", we’d all be sunk.

Ken old bean, you Stupid Poopyhead, without anti-spammers, even the obnoxious ones, you and I would be out of work. Well, you would, anyway.

By the way, I owe you a stogie for having stretched this framing an analogy far beyond reasonable limits, and tweaking your bulbous nasus repeatedly. Your piece on Confirmed Opt-in was a great one, which I will surely bookmark for future reference. It lays out the argument as to why marketers must implement it, and implement it now, in a coherent fashion and from a strong pro-marketing voice. But Ken, please, stop drawing lines between members of the email community, they only exacerbate deep divisions we must pave over if we are to be successful in staunching the flow of spam.

And thanks for the piece on COI/DOI. The Anti-spammers owe you major props.

Grace Kelly & Jack Kennedy

I have always thought Grace Kelly to be the most beautiful woman to have ever walked the earth. I have a 1961 copy of Life magazine with Fidel Castro on the cover, I was scanning the artwork for a friend, and discovered this remarkable shot.

I got me a new place to live!

View Larger Map

What I hate

- Hotels with wireless or in-room wired connectivity with old-school writing desks upon which one is expected to use one's computer

- Hotels that charge for said connectivity.

One of these things is not like the other. Cursed Nigerians!

I am homeless. Well, soon to be. More on that some other time, but suffice it to say, I need to find a place. Being a modern techno-male, I turned to, where else, Craigslist to find a place.

I spotted an ad for a lovely place in Montreal. So I wrote back inquiring as to availability.

I got the following email back:

Thanks for the email. I Sandman Pearson and my wife Christian Pearson
Sandman own the 3br - Single Family Home. and, the House is still available and will only be given out to the right person that will take very good care of the place and the facilities. and i also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me and my wife to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, We are here in west Africa, our new house and also with the keys of the house, we try to look for an agent that we can give this documents before we left but could not see and we are as well as don't want our house to be used any how in our present that is why we took it along with us. I and my wife came over to West Africa for a missionary work, so i hope you will promise us to take very good care of the house.and the house is has a fabulous backporch is inseparable from the relaxed setting of the heavily treed backyard;you will also find a pool is like a diamond glittering in the sun; inside are hand-scraped hardwood floors, travertine paved entry, and real granite counters; So get back to us. on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home. Hope you are okay with the price of US$750 Well i must let you know that the house has a lot of facilities like hydro and heat laundry facilities,air condition, gimming facilities, internet and telephone access and a car park and other necessary facilities. and so on. I am looking forward to hear from you soon,


RENT APPLICATION FORM
1) Your Full Name:
2) Your Full Address & Phone Number:
3) How old are you?
4) Are you married?
5) How many people will be living in the house?
6) Do you have a pet?
7) Do you have a car?
8) Occupation?
9)how long lease are you looking for?
10)How soon do you intend moving in?


Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can
have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting
you. Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the
document and the key to you, we do not see yet and only putting everything into
Gods hand, so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you
more as you do this. Please I want you to check the house at the address and let
me know if you would like it, the House is locked and I have the keys. Thanks and you are welcome

Thanks and God Bless You.
Sandman Pearson and my wife Christian Pearson

Now, what could possibly be wrong with that, right? Well it was almost exactly like an email I received when I asked after an apartment in Vancouver some weeks earlier:

I'm a Medical doctor and I work for the Red Cross society. I and my family arrive West Africa Two days Ago in supporting long term needs for clean water in Kenya, Sudan, Mali, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Benin, Republic, Nigeria and Ethiopia - providing the everyday needs of more than 389,500 people. Also Committed to mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS, which kills more than 6,000 Africans everyday, we are supporting community garden programs for AIDS sufferers and their families.

We are renting this our little home because we will be spending a long time traveling around Africa and we need a clean responsible person that we can trust to take a proper care of the home at all time and also the rent includes utilities like Wardrobe, Double Bed, Sheets & Blankets with Air Conditioning in the Bedrooms Furnished, TV, Iron, Sofa, DVD, Internet service and Air Conditioning in the Living room, Washing Machine/Dryer, Fridge, Electricity, Gas Hob, Oven, Microwave, Plates & cutlery in the Kitchen and it available for short and long term rental. Feel free to get back to me if interested so I can forward you the rental application and please note this that you cant go inside the house because the keys are right here with us but feel free to go view the exterior of the house and upon approval the keys will be send to you.

Thanks and God Bless

I also got the following, a few days later, to yet another inquiry I launched:

Thanks for your email,I am so sorry for geting back to you so late. I am Pastor.Campbell,The owner of the flat you are making inquiry of. Actually I resided in the flat with my family with my wife and my only daughter before and presently we had packed due to my transfer from my working place and now situated in ALABAMA, and presently my flat is still available for rent for including the utilities like hydro, washer,security. Am in West Africa for a Crusade and I will like you to get in touch with my wife in Spain for more information,she is with the keys/document to the flat. we're kind and honest family & respectful people and also spent a lot on our property that we want to give you for rent, I will solicit your absolute maintenance of this flat and want you to treat it as your own, if it's taken by you, money is not the main problem but we want you to keep it tidy for me to be glad when even we return. I also want trust in you as I always stand on my word.
Address:- 7 chemin Cote Ste Catherine

Email my wife mary on (tara.clarini@googlemail.com) and she will attends to you better.

Thanks and you are welcome...
Regard

Now, I've made my feelings known about the normal Nigerian '419' variant on the centuries-old Spanish prisoner scam, you know the one 'I'm a retired African general's son, he has stolen millions, give me a thousand to get this out of the country, and we'll both be rich!'. Well, that plays off people's greed, and my sympathies of someone willing to help steal money aren't exactly high.

But this?!? This is looking to steal from people looking for a place to live. Imagine, you hand over your personal information (all the questions above would be legal in the course of a rental agreement, at least, in Quebec, as would requiring a social insurance number, etcetera), maybe a couple of month's rent, maybe even get your stuff packed and into the truck, just to find out there's no room at the inn? Wow. that's just plain evil.

I was just in Boulder Colorado, and the local student paper has a cover-story on some poor kid who got conned in precisely this manner, and doing this at this time of year makes sense from the scammer's point of view, with all these college students out there looking for places to live.

So bottom line, beware. I'm pretty disappointed with Craigslist abuse department, I contacted them when I noticed this and the fraudulent ad is still up. I happen to know Craig, and will be reaching out. Kudos to my boy Carlo Catajan at Yahoo! who zapped the email accounts so at least others might not fall pray specifically to the scam.

YOUTUBE EXCLUSIVE: Send me your stereotypes

I caught Queen Rania: The Youtube Queen on the BEEB today, and I have to say this is an extraordinary experiment, well worth a view.

$1,300 for an omelet

I flew executive class, Air Canada from Toronto to Denver today. I had a free upgrade pass, and since it was due to expire in February, I figured I treat myself to some luxury.

Now, as a point of comparison, I flew from Montreal to Toronto to make that flight, and the economy leg of the trip was entirely fine, pretty much the same seat as in business class, except without all the extra legroom which I really don't need because I am little, and not overly fat, or anything.

Checking the Air Canada site I see the price difference is $1,300. So what does $1,300 buy you? An overly salted omelet, a warm roll with jam, and some orange tags that indicate your luggage is a priority (not to denigrate the value this latter but one time, Air Canada lost my bags with their little orange tags for two months, on my outbound to Bali, which was a bit of a drag since I landed with no clothes in Thailand before my hop over to Bali, and when I returned home had no winter clothes in Montreal, in February).

So anyway, if you are ever wondering about those snooty folks in executive class thinking they are holier-than-thou, when you walk by, enjoin them to savour the $1,300 omelet.

Yes, on long trips executive or first class makes travel a whole lot easier, but intra-continent? An omelet? Are you kidding me?

Pugs. It just doesn't get much better

Accolades & Acolytes, Awards & Compliments

My friend and colleague Michelle Pelletier made a submission for an award for me at work, after we suffered a client incident' wherein a whole bunch of people were mad at us.

While I have opted out of the reward system at work since I regard it as a popularity contest, and donate any funds received to charity, Michelle made this perhaps one of the highest accolades I've ever received; rather than offer an explanation as to why, she simply placed a copy of the poem "If" as to the reasoning. I share it with you all, below. Thanks so much, Michelle, I'm deeply honoured!

(By the way, click the image to find out the history of the "Kipling swastika", it not what you might think it is!!)

If - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Baked Leg Syndrome

This is what my Macbook has done to my leg. I believe one of the two fans is malfunctioning, ergo the heat build-up. I tend to work with my feet up on the coffee table, sitting on my couch, laptop in lap. Someone pointed out it isn't a laptop, but rather a 'portable computer'. Potato, potato.

Right now it says the enclosure base is 29 degrees, I've seen it as high as 39. The left fan is apparently passing air that is 59.2 degrees celsius.

In any event, stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Missing 'spam king' kills self, family

Tremendously sad, disturbing news.

BENNETT — Neighbors say the dead man, woman and toddler found near Bennett are the missing "spam king" and his family.

The shootings took place in the 42000 block of East Arkansas Place about 11:15 a.m. today, and the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office said a man, woman and 3-year-old girl were dead.

A neighbor who did not want to be named said the man who was suspected of killing himself and the others was Eddie Davidson, who walked away from a minium-security prison camp in Florence earlier this week. He said Davidson and his family used to live in the house where they died.

The neighbor said the Davidson family — known in Bennett as the Hills — "pretty much stayed to themselves."

McCain Campaign Running Obama-Castro Ad

About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Hubris - Google claims Adwords were responsible for Obama, McCain wins

Google's Greenberger Ties Obama, McCain Victories to Adwords Spend

That's rich. I realize people are a bit busy these days, but do they really decide how they are voting based upon ads they find beside their Google search results?

The best part of this little rant is attributing Hillary's loss to a lack of Adword spending ... where do they come up with this stuff?? I thought they only hired geniuses at Google. I guess there are marketing geniuses and then real geniuses or something:

Reading Greenberger's statements, you get the idea that spending on search ads will make or break the election. He attributes the success of John McCain and Barack Obama to their paid search campaigns. Greenberger also points out that Hillary Clinton was inconsistent in her Adwords campaign, dismantling it for the last two quarters of 2007 and starting it up again only after the New Hampshire primary.

Google should be thankful Billary pulled back from huge spends, if this New York Tomes piece is to be believed:

For Clinton, Millions in Debt and Few Options

Besides the $11.4 million of her own money that Mrs. Clinton lent her campaign, she had about $9.5 million in unpaid bills to vendors at the end of April, according to her most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission.

'We don't want to pay taxes, just like veryone else'

"We're not asking for money or for funding," says association spokesman Steve Lott. "All we're asking for is a level playing field where we get treated like everyone else."

That there is the money-shot from this piece on the airline industry wanting governments to cut them some slack. Clearly ensuring airlines continue to lose money is in the public interest. God how I love peeps who are all up in the 'free market, let the market decide' house until they want government to come in and control competition, and allow them to stop paying their share. After all, we don't need healthcare and education when we have airplanes other people can afford to fly in. I believe Michael Moore coined the phrase 'corporate welfare', and even if he didn't it is most apt.

Computer + Student ≠ Education

Well knock me over with a feather!

I spent a great amount of time at the Internet Governance Forum in Rio, last November wondering aloud exactly WHY it is that "we" need to wire Africa so they can look at naked Russian teenagers like the rest of the world.

Despite the hand-wavery crowd was loudly braying that hooking up Africans would make things all better over there.

OK. Except maybe first we should, you know, fix the problems of a lack of food and electricity? I know, I know, give them computers and they will fix their own problems, and to a degree, that is indeed correct, but they are no a panacea.

So anyway, the computerization of educations appears to be a bit of a flop over in wealthier climes, too.

Thanks for the PC. What do I do with it?

CORONADO, Calif.--This probably doesn't come as a surprise to most parents, but plopping a computer down in front of a student doesn't necessarily translate into academic success.

Don Helfgott of Inspiration Software, Tom Greaves of Project Inkwell, and Jeanette Hammock of True North Logic (left to right) discuss technology in education.
(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News.com)

We've heard a lot in recent years about the One Laptop Per Child initiative, and similar competing programs, which aim to improve educational standards in various parts of the world through computing power. But according to a panel discussion at the Future in Review conference, the computer itself isn't the issue; educators need to find meaningful ways to introduce computers into their day-to-day instructional process.

I think that one thing that should be taught in school is the lesson about "The Internet is Forever". i was out for brunch with a friend and her younger sister, who is precocious but clearly on the verge of nubility and adolescence. .. I tried to give the girl a little advice about not trusting anybody with personal information online, i don't know if any of it sunk in.

The reason I did so was a couple of weeks ago when searching for a friend on Facebook, I found a young girl with the same name as my friend. She's in secondary school somewhere in America. She probably thought it wise and funny to write FUCK and ME on each of her boobs she partially flashed on her FB profile. I'm willing to bet she will come to regret that decision.

Rosie the Riveter never looked so Riveting

Spam, but kudos on the sexy re-purposing. Would it be tasteless to say loose lips sink ships?

Apple Mac Music Video

Cute

Dear Illiterate, Incoherent News Readers

Look, your job is a simple one. Pour yourself into a suit or a pantsuit, face the camera, smile (or look somber, whatever your notes tell you to do) and read the Tele-prompter. Not too difficult. The camera does the rest, transmitting you into our homes both visually, and audibly. And it is this last with which I have a problem.

You know that story you've been reading about Burma (aka Myanmar)? Yeah, the cyclone thing. Terrible deaths, injuries, homes lost?

K, the thing is - what kind of government do they have again? A military junta?

Now, that word - how do you pronounce it? Hun-ta, or better yet, hoon-ta. NOT FRIKKEN JUN-ta! The word is Spanish, dear idiot, and the least you could do is try.

I swear the next news-reader who says JUN-tah, I'm going to go down there, and make them a nice bow-tie out of their tongue.

Just because Bill on Channel 4 Action News or some down-trodden correspondent holed up in Bangkok at the moment on the network feed mispronounces it doesn't make it right.

So please, if you are someone who has big tits or a big chin and has to read stuff, and that's your only job in life, try to do it well. I mean the reading part. Your chin and tits will take care of themselves.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/junta

Ain't My Bitch

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/04/metallica-consi.html

Good old Lars is back-tracking on all that music for free stuff seeing as how Trent made a buttload of money giving some music away for free, and it looks like they might want to hose Warner Bros. on their last Metallica recording.

"But then God told me, he's like ..."

I've always wondered how people are able to determine what god's will is.

For example, apparently god saved people last night from further serious injury, according to those injured

'Angels' prevented deaths, more injuries: concert-goer


OK. Or maybe this 'god' fellow caused the collapse because he, like everyone else is a critic and he thinks that Starfield sucks?

"God was totally around the building, that's why no one died, because God was protecting everyone," she said. "He had his angels around us." - Bethany Blois, injured person with bad musical taste.

Ok, Bethany. We get that you like god and all, but I think you have to stop making excuses for random occurrences. The floor collapsed, you only fell 10 feet. Sucks, but coulda been a lot worse. As for god, I'm told by the voices in my head he was over at the Pestilence show, head banging. He's vengeful, according to some.

Hysterical Phish/419 something

So they are trying brow-beating as a tactic now? Wow.

NOTIFICATION OF PAYMENT VIA ATM CARD

This is to officially inform you that we have verified your contract file presently on my desk, and I found out that you have not received your payment due to your lack of co-operation and not fulfilling the obligations giving to you in respect to your payment.

Secondly, you are hereby advised to stop dealing with some non-officials in the bank and some of Attorney as this is an illegal act and will have to stop if you so wish to receive your payment immediately.After the Board of director's meeting held in Abuja, we have resolved in finding a solution to your problem. We have arranged your payment through our SWIFT CARD PAYMENT CENTRE in Europe, America, Africa and Asia Pacific;this is part of an instruction/mandate passed by the Senate in respect to overseas contract payment and debt re-scheduling.

We will send you an ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw your money via ATM MACHINE in any part of the world, and the maximum daily limit is Fifteen Thousand United States Dollars ($15,000.00) If you like to receive your fund this way, kindly reconfirm your



(1) Your Full Name

(2) Full residential address.

(3) Phone and Direct mobile Number

We shall be expecting to receive your information as you have to stop any further communication with anybody or office.I repeat again here that you are receiving this money due to we haveverified your file presently on my desk, and I found out that you have not received your payment due to your lack of co-operation and not fulfilling the obligations giving to you in respect to your payment from bank, remember this IS not credit card which you will pay back later, you don't have to pay back we have already loaded your fund in to the ATM CARD.


Best Regards,

Dr Andrew Hall

Spam from Quebec Green Party Candidate Peter McQueen mcqueenp@videotron.ca

Apparently even greens hold themselves above the law. Peter McQueen mcqueenp@videotron.ca apparently thinks his political views are so important, it is OK to add addresses to a mailing list without permission, and ignore repeated requests to be removed from the list.

Appropriate LART sent to Videotron. And McQueen. And The Green Party. One more time and it goes to a PIPEDA complaint.

--------------------------------------------------------

Received: by 10.65.155.5 with SMTP id h5cs110210qbo;
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:15:43 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.141.49.6 with SMTP id b6mr2493211rvk.223.1206386138381;
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:15:38 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path:
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by mx.google.com with ESMTP id 62si10623084wri.30.2008.03.24.12.15.30;
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:15:38 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of mcqueenp@videotron.ca designates 24.201.245.36 as permitted sender) client-ip=24.201.245.36;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of mcqueenp@videotron.ca designates 24.201.245.36 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=mcqueenp@videotron.ca
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Received: from PeterPuter ([24.201.79.116]) by VL-MO-MR001.ip.videotron.ca
(Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-4.01 (built Aug 3 2007; 32bit))
with SMTP id <0JY900JVX1HMG1G0@VL-MO-MR001.ip.videotron.ca>; Mon,
24 Mar 2008 15:15:30 -0400 (EDT)
Message-id: <002f01c88de3$25033940$1002a8c0@PeterPuter>
Reply-to: Peter McQueen
From: Peter McQueen
To: mcqueenp@videotron.ca
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Lettre_du_Quartier_NDG_=E0_Marie-Jos=E9e_Mastromonaco?=
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:13:24 -0400
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198

Aux parents et citoyens concern=E9s de Notre-Dame-de-Gr=E2ce,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On April 6, he spammed me again:



Received: by 10.65.154.4 with SMTP id g4cs108972qbo;
Sun, 6 Apr 2008 09:57:42 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.35.86.19 with SMTP id o19mr6763969pyl.43.1207501061387;
Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:57:41 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path:
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by mx.google.com with ESMTP id z80si19811809pyg.37.2008.04.06.09.57.27;
Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:57:41 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of mcqueenp@videotron.ca designates 24.201.245.36 as permitted sender) client-ip=24.201.245.36;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of mcqueenp@videotron.ca designates 24.201.245.36 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=mcqueenp@videotron.ca
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Boundary_(ID_JdOhzGOoGM/tIiqzjuaL+Q)"
Received: from PeterPuter ([24.201.79.116]) by VL-MH-MR002.ip.videotron.ca
(Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-4.01 (built Aug 3 2007; 32bit))
with SMTP id <0JYW004V2XQV5T10@VL-MH-MR002.ip.videotron.ca>; Sun,
06 Apr 2008 12:57:23 -0400 (EDT)
Message-id: <001d01c89806$edc9cbf0$1002a8c0@PeterPuter>
Reply-to: Peter McQueen
From: Peter McQueen
To: mcqueenp@videotron.ca
Subject:
=?iso-8859-1?Q?Pr=E9sentation_de_Richard_Bergeron_sur_le_transport_=E0_?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?Montr=E9al?=
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:54:45 -0400
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He once again spammed me today, April 21:


Received: by 10.65.154.4 with SMTP id g4cs108972qbo;
Sun, 6 Apr 2008 09:57:42 -0700 (PDT)
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Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:57:41 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path:
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by mx.google.com with ESMTP id z80si19811809pyg.37.2008.04.06.09.57.27;
Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:57:41 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of mcqueenp@videotron.ca designates 24.201.245.36 as permitted sender) client-ip=24.201.245.36;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of mcqueenp@videotron.ca designates 24.201.245.36 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=mcqueenp@videotron.ca
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary="Boundary_(ID_JdOhzGOoGM/tIiqzjuaL+Q)"
Received: from PeterPuter ([24.201.79.116]) by VL-MH-MR002.ip.videotron.ca
(Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-4.01 (built Aug 3 2007; 32bit))
with SMTP id <0JYW004V2XQV5T10@VL-MH-MR002.ip.videotron.ca>; Sun,
06 Apr 2008 12:57:23 -0400 (EDT)
Message-id: <001d01c89806$edc9cbf0$1002a8c0@PeterPuter>
Reply-to: Peter McQueen
From: Peter McQueen
To: mcqueenp@videotron.ca
Subject:
=?iso-8859-1?Q?Pr=E9sentation_de_Richard_Bergeron_sur_le_transport_=E0_?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?Montr=E9al?=
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:54:45 -0400
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

Aux membres et amis de la Coalition Verte

Soirée d'information, le Jeudi 24 avril prochain

Dans l'objectif de lancer officiellement le mouvement concerté Droit de passage vert, plusieurs organismes se regroupent afin d'organiser, le 24 avril prochain, une soirée information qui traitera en premier lieu sur l'avenir de la falaise Saint-Jacques et du terrain de golf Meadowbrook face à des projets risquant de les détruire ou de compromettre leurs usages.

Venez donc en grand nombre à 19h au centre communautaire MUNGED demander votre droit de passage vert.

Téléphone: MUNGED



Information Town Hall, Thursday April 24th, 2008 Green right of way will be holding its founding meeting the 24th of April at 7PM at the MUNGED

Several grass roots community groups have come out in support of this effort. The main focus of discussion will be the future conservation of the St. Jacques Escarpment, Meadowbrook Golf Course and their integration into a greater greenbelt in Southwestern Montreal.

For more information please contact: Green right of way at MUNGED

Spammed by Gizmo (and Gizmodo)

Check out Josh Baer's making note of how and why you get spammed, apparently every time anyone signs up for Gizmodo.

Oh wait, no, not Gizmodo, Gizmo. A friend signed up for that silly useless thing and they spammed her. Oh well. Everybody sucks I guess.

I'd suggest not signing up for Gizmo until they stop crappy marketing like this. Or Gizmodo either, for that matter.

We bad, we bad. Canada to get a Spam Law

Scuttlebutt around Ottawa is the current conservative-lead minority government is seriously considering tabling a spam law in the House of Commons before the summer break. More on this as it develops, over on the CAUCE website.

Scotiabank Needs both a New Marketing & Technical Team. Or not.

April 18, I receive a mail from Scotiabank, touting a contest running April 1 to May 1, 2008.

Dear Valued Customer,

ScotiaBank and ScotiaBankPlace.Com is very happy to announce a new Try It And Win! contest, for its customers.

In order to take part in this contest you are required to be have a Scotia Bank OnLine Services user, meaning you have to already have or if not to activate your Scotia Online account.

The contest will take place between the 1st of April 2008, and the 1st of May 2008. The contest winners list is updated weekly on our web site. There are no registration fees, or any other fees for joining our contest except the above condition.
For more information about it, please click on the link below.

Try It And Win!

Thank you,
ScotiaBank & ScotiaBankPlace.com

Here is a snipurl version of their link

http://snurl.com/24yzx [www2_scotiabankplace_com]

I clicked it. Here's what I got:




So i clicked Ok, which is a really really bad thing to do when your banks otensible cert is from The Ottawa Senators. just saying, fine hockey, bad to have a hockey site show up when I am doing some banking.

And here is a shot of the landing page. Boggle.





My old friend John Levine & I consulted with Scotiabank back in the day, we did a lunch & learn. Apparently too much lunch, too little learn.

or maybe it is a phish? It seems to have originated from 66.187.148.197 which is somewhere in Pennsylvania.

In Support of The Spamhaus Project

A letter to the editor sent to Ken Magill of Direct News / Magilla Marketing


Ken,

Thank-you for your April 1 column 'Anonymous Group Takes Aim at Spamhaus', it is no joke.

Consider for a moment what the circumstance for the email world would be, were the people behind Online Marketing Advocacy Group to be successful in putting The Spamhaus Project out of business.

Literally hundreds of millions of user inboxes would be left unprotected. Spam would flow, unabated, into them. How then, would users react? I imagine a goodly portion of them would simply give up on the medium. We have already seen evidence of users either migrating to social networking closed gardens or dumping email altogether, how much more tempting will these alternates be in such a world?

ISPs would scramble to put other measures into place, using DNSBLs far more draconian those of Spamhaus.

Legitimate marketers will be severely affected, with a far, far lessened ability to get their messages delivered, or actually seen, amidst the blizzard of spam.

Is a listing on Spamhaus onerous enough to sue the company out of existence? I imagine it must be for some of the highest degree of frustration to be listed at Spamhaus. However, in both my personal and professional life I have never experienced anything but professionalism and ease of use with their products. The clients I have encountered with Spamhaus listings who made the appropriate changes were quickly delisted, plain and simple as that.

I expect of the tens of thousands of legitimate marketers who are not listed at present, some may have had some unfortunate intersection with Spamhaus, and had to change their practices. At present, they are humming along happily. To them I ask - do you like getting your mail to the inbox of your subscribers? Then do not sit on your hands, and allow this pernicious, short-sighted initiative to move forward an inch without a challenge:

Contribute to Spamhaus in any way possible; they surely have a legal defense fund to fight against this spurious attack, pony up some money!

Strictly follow industry guidelines - the Messaging Anti-abuse Working Group has several available through their website (including a terrific new paper on email authentication, check it out - all these documents have been developed with the full participation of senders, receivers, CAUCE and Spamhaus associates.

Agitate in industry associations like the DMA and ESPC to very publicly voice and undertake initiatives against the actions of the cowardly Online Marketing Advocacy Group and indeed for The Spamhaus Project. This may cause some internal pain to these groups. It is my understanding that some of their members, in fact, very vocal members are the main supporters of this attack-dog group. Take a stance, divest yourselves of these sectors of the industry that do nobody any good, far least, the ever-loving recipient of email

Be forewarned, if you don't take an active stance now, today, and these vile back-room people are successful, you will doubtlessly wish you had done so. It will hurt your business, and in these business climes, I'd say that in and of itself is a very brave stance indeed. Good luck with that.

--
Neil Schwartzman
Executive Director
CAUCE: The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email

Canada: +1 (514) 485 9713
US: +1 (303) 800 6345
Skype: spamfighter666
Fax: +1 (419) 793 0430

Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss

Everybody's walking around today with a pantload of warm emotion about Barak Obama's "The Speech".

WHAT ever. Things got so bad in the U.S. that a sack of rutabaga is more electable, and preferable to the current administration.

I'll just remind everyone sporting wood today that the United Sates has been the world's 'benign' imperial power for the past century. From Roosevelt on, there has been nothing about American foreign policy except imperialism, and death of foreigners. That's the nature of empires, sadly. That's the nature of human nature. America is it this century. And well, the prince regent, China, doesn't seem to be any better now does it?

Obama makes my mind run to the lyric for Won't Get Fooled Again released in June, 1971

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the foe, that' all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

Well, maybe you don't want to listen to some Canadian spout off about American politics, or a Brit like Pete Townsend.

Listen to Phil Donahue, especially the stuff at 9:00 minutes in
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/asithappens_20080318_5044.mp3

Who Are You? Blogger to Facebook to everyone knows!

NSFW?

'Careful’ she was told ‘Neil might post something inappropriate to your Facebook page’.

Indeed, I might. Facebook, after all, is not work, this is my personal space, and so it is a place of free expression of who I am.

Nevertheless, the notion of me putting something someone else might find offensive up on his or her page is an interesting one.

For one, I don’t use the ‘funwall’ or ‘wall’ applications on other people’s pages. Ever. So how would that work?

Well, Facebook is interesting from a privacy perspective.

Several things can go on.

I have my YouTube account linked to my Google account which means there is a link to my blog welikeballs.com hosted by blogger (I grabbed the domain for $10 when it lapsed and was offered up for sale on GoDaddy. I think it is hilarious). My Facebook page automatically posts all of my blog posts to my profile. My YouTube stuff could potentially be posted up to my blog. So, were I to have a penchant for ‘sexy teens dancing’ there is the possibility that were I to look at a shameless hussy on YouTube, it could end up on my Facebook page. As could it via my YouTube video app.

Of course, on Facebook – your friend’s profiles also keep track of what you are doing. I post something on my Facebook page, it appears in the newsfeed of my friends’ pages. So someone whose interest does not lie in the realm of ‘sexy teens dancing’ might end up with a little two line bit of inappropriateness trumpeting my puerile pursuits, and find that … you guess it, inappropriate.

Here’s another un-cool privacy thingie on Facebook. I have something called Friendwheel. It tells me who among my Facebook friends know my other Facebook friends. Check it out HERE

Well now, that is interesting because it lets me know who knows whom, and there are some interesting links indeed. Spammer Scott Richter, for example, is a friend with five of my friends. One has to wonder why. Or not.

The there’s tagging photos.

Say someone takes a picture of you and me in a compromising position. And puts it up on their Facebook page. Then ‘tags’ the picture, indicating whom among their friends appears in the picture. That then appears on their page. And mine, as a photo of me. I have no control, or may not notice that that embarrassing picture is up.

So yeah. I might just have something inappropriate up on Facebook, and it may well wend its wooly way into your world.

Such is the open-book life we lead online.

I suppose if I had anything embarrassing have happened in my life I would be worried.

As it stands, I guess it is just up to those who are my friends to get over it, love me for my inappropriateness, or stop being my friends. On Facebook, at least. Because, after all, there is nothing like being inappropriate face to face.

Love ya!

Spammer goes to a LOT of Trouble

Wow. Just wow.

My friend Lorraine was on the television!

Check this out - Les Handclaps!

Some Things Never Change Pt. II Facebook and Blog Nemesis myluvcrush.ca

Check out these pop-ups for myluvcrush.ca & .com. What an annoyance!

If you have encountered this crap on Facebook or elsewhere, here is where you can write or call to thank them for the pop-ups:

Whois Record

Status: EXIST
Registrar: Internic.ca Corp.
Registrar-no: 29
Registrant-no: 2100165
Domaine-no: 2100165
Subdomain: myluvcrush.ca
Renewal-Date: 2008/11/18
Date-Approved: 2007/11/18
Date-Modified: 2007/11/18
Organization: Theofilos Jason
Description: Individual
Admin-Name: Rob Hall
Admin-Title: Chief Privacy Officer
Admin-Postal: Privacy.ca
43 Auriga Drive
Suite 4220488
Ottawa ON K2E 7Y8 Canada
Admin-Phone: (613) 221-1215 ext. 4220488
Admin-Fax:
Admin-Mailbox: pmb4220488@privacy.ca

Their .com has the following information:

registrant-firstname: Oneandone
registrant-lastname: Private Registration
registrant-organization: 1&1 Internet, Inc. - http://1and1.com/contact
registrant-street1: 701 Lee Road, Suite 300
registrant-street2: ATTN: myluvcrush.com
registrant-pcode: 19087
registrant-state: PA
registrant-city: Chesterbrook
registrant-ccode: US
registrant-phone: +1.8772064254
proxy843898@1and1-private-registration.com

Jason Theofilos has a Facebook page, too!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason_Theofilos/761362836


OH, and look, he also HAD a LinkedIn profile, and he used to work for Azoogle - a (formerly) Spamhaus Project ROKSO-listed spamming outfit. What a shock, there:

Jason Theofilos
Business Development Manager at Mobile Messenger and Accounting Consultant

Current: Business Development Manager, Mobile Messenger

Past: Affiliate Manager, Azoogle Ads
Director Of Online Sales & Marketing, Performance Publications

Page #1 - ended up here due to a redirect from Facebook
Page #2 - I clicked close
Page #3 - clicked close again
Page #4 - clicked close again!
Page #5 - clicked close AGAIN! (Sixth time is a charm, the page finally goes away)

Trent Reznor: talking about CD Pricing

So TR made 1.5 million 'giving' away his latest Ghosts I-IV series.
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/03/nine-inch-nai-2.html

Brilliant!

I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get

I'm a monarchist, I admit it. I like The Queen of England. I like the film The Queen too, despite it being so very critical of the royals.

The Queen smiles benignly upon we, her loyal subjects, from some of our money here in Canada, and that makes me happy, as does her annual message at Christmas time. I subscribed to The Royal Channel on YouTube so I could check out their online messaging.

I think that in this day and age, it is a good thing to have inspirational, iconic leaders who can set a standard. For me, as a devout atheist, The Queen helps by filling that role (Richard Branson's remarkable Elders Project is also something I admire and respect deeply).

And now, we have come to see that the Queen has helped raise a brave and courageous grandson. Prince Harry is back in Britain due to the ongoing moronic actions of Matt Drudge' Drudgery Report. I watched his return on the BEEB yesterday, and the subsequent interview.

Nine times out of ten someone stumbles upon you when you're having a shit. They don't bat an eyelid because it's normal out here. It's very nice to be a sort of normal person for once. I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get.

Two things strike me about this young man: That he wants to go back to Afghanistan, to "do his bit" shows character far beyond what one would expect from the ruling elite (Hello, George W. Bush, yes, I'm talking about YOU) and the other is that I think that civilian leaders who are involved in waging war should have had to fight in one, as a grunt.

The Royal Prince flew home with two injured soldiers and faced, first-hand, the consequences of war. How wonderful and educative an experience for someone who will have influence (albeit minimal but more than the normal sot) upon how his country and their policies.

For an entirely dissident and unkind view of all of this, check out this piece in today's Guardian


I disagree with Ms. Hyde. I think the world needs far more young men like Prince Harry to set an example. Far better him than buffoon rappers making such pursuits as Benjamins, grills & Ho's the goal. Prince Harry has demonstrated that despite a life of privilege one can come out with a sense of responsibility, bravery, and maturity.

God bless The Royal Princenot because he is a hero, but because he isn't and rejects the label.