THURSDAY 27: In my opinion this is probably the best addition to FireFox. If you surf a lot, you'll meet new unknown sites all the time. Should they all be trusted at first sight? Only if you don't care about security. However, asking your browser to disable all scipts permanently is not practical. Then again accepting all scripts simply isn't safe. A differentiated response would be optimal. Here NoScript comes to the rescue:
"While its primary aim is preventing malicious JavaScript from running, NoScript can effectively block Java, Silverlight, Flash and other plugins on untrusted sites. Applets, Flash movies/application, Quicktime clips and other content won't be even downloaded from sites where you consider them annoyances, saving your bandwidth and increasing your navigation speed." www.noscript.net www.hackademix.net
Does anyone ever read the TOS..?
WEDNESDAY 26: I really doubt that. I have even begun to suspect that companies doesn't either.
I just discovered this text at the bottom of the TOS of F-secures free online scanner,
"If you have any questions concerning these Terms, or you would like to contact F-Secure for any other reason, please write: F Secure Corporation, PL24, FI-00181 Helsinki, Finland, fax: +358 9 2520 5001, e-mail: helsinki@f secure.com or call: +358 9 2520 0700"
Always nice to have more than one option,
but I guess that 10 out of 9 would use email.
Just too bad that the email address is invalid.
Oops...
Blog versus Forum versus Wiki
SUNDAY 23: Once upon a time websites were websites, but the net has certainly diversified since I started in 1999.
Now we also have Blogs, Fora and Wikis, but should everybody use them all?
What are the differences and similarities?
BLOG:
A Blog is an ongoing personal thread, a web log written on a single document, although with several categories.
A Blog is best at presenting your own point of view directly. However, lots of comments may grow a Blog into a more collaborative effort.
More fresh than factual; always new stuff at the top, but rarely the best stuff too.
FORUM:
Best at discussions, starting a debate, question a topic, exploring a field.
But not so good at reaching conclusions or creating final versions.
A characteristic shared with blogs: always fresh stuff at top but rarely the most relevant.
However, by creating 'sticky topics' and moderated intros fora may stabilize and grow more like Wiki.
Fora are local, run by a group, thus between the personal Blog and the global Wiki.
WIKI:
A Wiki is unlike a Blog as it aim to be objective, not personal.
Also unlike Fora because debates may arise but always behind the scene.
At the surface only a single conclusion.
Always the latest edition, but you'll never never have a really final version.
A Wiki may have the global scope a Forum seldom has,
if it becomes a worldwide effort.
Nord Vest Symbol
SATURDAY 22: One early summerday I was asked to suggest a symbol for the Northwest quarter of Copenhagen.
It took many months, 3 versions, and countless variants, before all pieces fitted the puzzle.
As far as I recall the first deadline was early august, but now - finally finished:
The symbols refer to 'bishop' and hill', together "Bispebjerg" (=Bishops Hill).
And also to "Grundvigs Church", frontview.
All your Rights are Belong to Us
FRIDAY 21: Does anyone ever read the TOS?
Never wondered what their Terms Of Service actually were.?
Or did you just accept it, click, without ever glancing at the words..?
Today I stumbled upon this site, scroogeyourself.com, and decided to read at least some of the text, before accepting.
And here is a minor part of that, 3 sentences:
Grants of rights: By submitting a photograph or any other materials or information to the Web Site (including, without limitation, your name, picture, likeness, voice or biographical information, vocal messages, text messages or text) (each a "Submission"), you hereby grant to the Company, it's subdiaries and affiliated companies and each of their respective licensees, successors and assigns (collectively, the "OfficeMax Enties"), the unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual and royalty-free right and license to to use, host, cache, store, copy, distribute, display, perform, publish, broadcast, transmit, modify, reformat, translate or otherwise exploit in any manner whatsoever your Submission throughout the universe, in perpetuity, in any manner or venue and for any purpose whatsoever, including, without limitation, for purposes of advertising, promotion or trade in promoting and publizizing Company and its products and services, by means of any and all medie and devices whether now known or hereafter deviced, which includes, without limitation, the unlimited right and permission to post the Submission on this Web Site.
The OfficeMax Entities shall have the right, in their sole discretion, to edit, composite, morph, scan, duplicate, or alter your Submission in any manner for any purpose the OfficeMax Entities deem neccesary or desirable (each, a Modification), and you irrevocable waive any moral rights you may have in your Submission even if a Modification is not acceptable to you.
You agree that you have no right of approval, no claim to compensation, and no claim (including, without limitation, claims based upon invasion of privacy, defamation or right of publicity) arising out of any use or Modification of your Submission, including, without limitation, any blurring, alteration, editing, morphing, distortion, illusionary effect, faulty reproduction, fictionalization or use in any composite form.
Translated from legalese to english:
If you submit anything, you give it to the Company.
What rights do you have? None. By submitting you granted the Company all 'rights and licenses'.
They can now copy, alter, modify or "otherwise exploit in any manner whatsoever your Submission".
How long will this last? Forever, as "in perpetuity". Your rights are 'irrevocably' lost.
How wide, even global? Indeed, it's worldwide and "throughout the universe".
Can you regret? Don't even think about it: "you irrevocable waive any moral rights you may have in your Submission even if a Modification is not acceptable to you."
Compensation possible? You have "no claim to compensation, and no claim (including, without limitation, claims based upon invasion of privacy, defamation)."
Is this a joke, or just normal legalese?
I'm not sure, but make up your own mind,
before you visit: http://scroogeyourself.com
Merry X-mas
THURSDAY 21: And what could possibly be more suitable now
than a modern magic chainsaw massacre: youtube.com/watch?v=DF_uZeSziw4
Ho ho ho...
Have I ever done that before..?
MONDAY 17: Digital photographing certainly seems to make a difference:
Today I counted 1113 photographs (0,6 Gb) and that's just December.
So far, as we're still in the middle of the month. Holy Cat!
Japanese artists Sachiko Kodama and Yasushi Miyajima have used superparamagnetic nanoparticles to create an alien but beautiful sculpture "Morpho Towers, an artwork using ferrofluids controlled by magnetic fields.
Or in their own description as "an autonomous transformation of the material itself: sometimes it seems like a horn, sometimes a fir tree, and sometimes even like the Tower of Babel."
Here's the artist own description: "Morpho Towers - Two Standing Spirals” is an installation that consists of two ferrofluid sculptures that moves synthetically to music. The two spiral towers stand on a large plate that hold ferrofluid. When the music starts, the magnetic field around the tower is strengthened. Spikes of ferrofluid are born from the bottom plate and move up, trembling and rotating around the edge of the iron spiral.
The body of the tower was made by a new technique called “ferrofluid sculpture” that enables artists to create dynamic sculptures with fluid materials. This technique uses one electromagnet, and its iron core is extended and sculpted. The ferrofluid covers the sculpted surface of a three-dimensional iron shape that was made on an electronic NC lathe. The movement of the spikes in the fluid is controlled dynamically on the surface by adjusting the power of the electromagnet. The shape of the iron body is designed as helical so that the fluid can move to the top of the helical tower when the magnetic field is strong enough."
www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/spiral/
Lovecrafts Cookbook
SATURDAY 1: Strange tastes seem to accumulate around midnite:
The Menu of Erich Zahn:
Flying sauces.
The last Supper.
The cosmic kitschen.
November 2007
Utopia is near
FRIDAY 30: Multiartist Lars Mikkes, normally residing on Fyn, visited Copenhagen today.
The gallerys homepage: www.jyttearntzen.com
Adding the ad
- Different points of views
WEDNESDAY 28: Ads are no longer just ads. Actually it's more misleading not to differentiate. I stumbled upon this debate, and decided to follow the trail further:
John G. Tylers:.. the insidious problem of visually deceptive advertisements in web design, where advertisers fool users by displaying what appear to be user-control dialog elements but which really are links to their voracious marketing engines...
Jakob Nielsen: Yes, ads that masquerade as dialog boxes or other useful user interface elements are deceptive and probably unethical. But they are also self-defeating: sure, you can trick the user into clicking on an ad in the belief that it is a dialog box, but that user's first reaction upon arriving at your site will be one of disgust - and an immediate click on the Back button.
Read more here...
Mads Dam: There are 3 kinds of deception:
Mild manipulation, "Always going to the line" or Outright fraud.
But only the last kind is legally forbidden. Read more...
SATURDAY 24: After installing Avast I returned to the still unupdating AVG: tried to restart windows; no luck. Tried to repair installation; no luck.
Then uninstall - and reinstall; that seemed to help and I got the first successful update in weeks. At last...
However, the AVG-icon in the bottom right corner of my screen was still grayed out, indicating 'database is out-of-date'..?
So, perhaps I'm not done yet. In the meantime I looked for advice on the net, and was reminded that even if the free version is without support, there is still a supporting forum: forum.grisoft.cz
Here I read this: "1st things 1st.... Always double / triple check your Windows clock time even am/pm, date & year. These have to be totally correct for AVG to function properly. Hover your mouse over the clock.... You won't believe how easy it is to be just one day, month or even a year out....
After correcting the DATE/TIME.. open the AVG Test Center then the Scheduler... edit the schedule for the update and disable it... close it and then open it right back up and re-enable the update schedule. This will reset the schedule to the correct date/time again."
Eventually things worked out, a reboot was missing,
but that happened automatically next morning...
Decompression bomb..?
FRIDAY 23: Recently I had to find a new anti virus product, because my old one suddenly stopped working.
No, it didn't crash, just lost the ability to update. A minor issue the first time, but it could grow quite serious.
So, say hello to Avast! But a new program also looks different, and works different. Plus it has interesting new error messages.
Today I was greeted with this one: "Unable to scan. The file is a decompression bomb." The file itself was called "WIN_XP.NRG".
Never heard of NRG before, but Wikipedia came to the rescue: "A .nrg file is a proprietary CD image file format used by Nero Burning ROM".
But what is a decompression bomb? The actual file had a size of 0,5 Gb. I don't know the real, uncompressed size.
But ten times would not be unusual. So if I decompressed, this file might consume 5 Gb on a drive with only 1½ Gb free space.
Clearly not a good idea. Anyway, this file was 5 years old and I had never used it. So I just deleted it. End of bomb...
WEDNESDAY 21: Here's some interesting news from the PhishTank:
One unique phishing scam is launched every two minutes. (That's more than 700 every day.)
18 percent of all verified phishing websites were hosted on just three IP addresses.
U.S. telecoms are hosting more phishes than telecoms in any other country.
Pure graphics, not a single line of text. But you don't need a manual to start:
Move the mouse around and you'll find something to click: see what happens...
Not only computers meet a virus
MONDAY 19: The early bird catches the worm, but the late owl catches a cold...
Epicycles revisited
SUNDAY 18: A year ago I moved from my old domain www.mads-dam-larsen.dk to the new and shorter: www.madsdam.net.
But such things take time, and I must admit that there is still a few images and text untransferred.
My old Epicycloscope was one of them, but I decided to upgrade it as well. It took a week, but finally done...
Well, almost, because it still don't work in Firefox. Anyone, any suggestions...
Comet grows larger than the sun
SATURDAY 17: Last month I noticed a star I hadn't seen before.
Neither had Løyche. Today the mystery was solved as I read this on C-net:
The sun is no longer the largest object in our solar system. For a while anyway.
Comet 17P/Holmes exploded Oct 23, became a million times brighter within a few hours
and causing its gas and dust cloud to expand and expand.
Have a look...
Urgent urgent..!
THURSDAY 8: Yesterday I received an email with "Urgent! Urgent!" as title.
The message was a forwarded warning of some new virus, being distributed by mail and hiding in an attached pdf-file.
Don't open that file: then this virus will erase all information on your harddisk, and you'll never ever get it back.
This nasty little program was supposedly created by a german programmer. Forward this to all your friends...
Hm, I thought, this sounds like a message from a "friend of a friend". And what does that remind me of?
Urban legends! Now, think about this: there's more than 100.000 viruses around now, and more than a hundred new appearing each week.
What sense does a single email make, warning about a single virus? How about the other 99.999..? Well, here's reality:
If you don't have anti-virus, and your pc is not updated, you'll be infected in less than an hour if you go online. Email warnings or not.
Morale: Don't spread disinformation, don't pass unvalidated warnings, don't waste peoples time.
Do check the source and credibility of information, do use your common sense, do think before you panic.
Here's a link to Hoax Warnings from F-Secure...
October 2007
Abnormal is abnormal - Geeks on etymology
There are tons of newsletters out there, each normally specializing on their own area.
Recently I noticed in an otherwise normal and somewhat technical newsletter,
that the author suddenly jumped the topic:
"I'm not sure what constitutes a "coffee table" book in Mountain View, or wherever there might be another high concentration of Internet professionals, but an e-book on Google Analytics wouldn't make the definition in my house. I prefer my etymological dictionary because I am an entirely different kind of geek.
The word "abnormal," for instance, is a mutant, a fact I learned from my beloved dictionary I keep on my coffee table; if it had developed according to proper Latin structures, we should be saying anormal, which makes the word "abnormal" abnormal, and that makes me laugh." - Jason Lee Miller
There are normal geeks, multi geeks and even universal geeks
(they don't know all but wouldn't mind).
Code of conduct
I just read in The Register that Facebok: "may terminate your membership, delete your profile and any content or information that you have posted on the Site... for any reason, or no reason, at any time in its sole discretion, with or without notice."
Well, I think this is an offer I can refuse, with or without notice...
Surfing privately
If you're worried about Google hiding personal information (almost) for ever, try Blackdust - an anonymous Google proxy. Here's their own description:
"When we search the web with Google its easy to forget that they are recording every search and every IP address. In fact unless you're very careful with your cookies then Google probably knows you better than you know yourself.
This freaks us out. And it should freak you out too. The fact that every aspect of our search behaviour is being recorded, and use of that data isn't really restricted by any laws or policies is a problem. Blackdust is the solution to the problem. Searching the web through the Blackdust anonymous proxy protects your identity and what Google can learn about you."
And they'll remove the ads as well...
August 2007
Messenger phishing
If you get a message like those two shown below, then beware!
"Find out who deleted you from the MSN without noticing it.
Check your MSN and verify who deleted you from their Messenger account."
"Do you want to know why some contacts are never online? Do you want to find out who removed you from his/her contact list? Messenger-Tips.com answers these questions easily and risk free. Enter your MSN account and password and we will tell you who has left you out from their lives. Your MSN client will disconnect while this information is retrieved. Then, your contact list will be displayed and you'll know the truth."
The thruth? Near the end of a long FAQ: "Will Messenger-Tips send IM messages to my online contacts? By using the Online Delete Checker you authorize Messenger-Tips to send Instant Messages on your behalf to your online contacts advertising the site."
But it does not reveal how many times this will happen, nor how often.
Basically you're accepting that all of your friends and contacts will be spammed...
Either the registrant has chosen to remain anonymous, or it is:
Virtus Offshore Investment Co.
Suite 2007 20th Floor
The Century Tower
Ave Ricardo J. Alfaro
Panama City. Panama.
IP locations variate: California or Netherlands or Malaysia or ?
PS: If you wonder what the TK domain means? It refers to Tokelau,
a non-self-governing colonial territory of New Zealand,
3 tropical coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean.
ARRGGGHHHHH SHIT %?&¤#!!!
MONDAY 6: Yesterday I returned home late only to discover that my pc was now infected with spyware and adware; Something called VirusProtectPro had installed itself without asking. In IE the startpage was changed, plus IE opened new windows several times all by itself with different sites. I managed to write some of them down:
Wikipedia had this to say: "VirusProtectPro is a rogue malware program that claims to be a commercial anti-spyware, when in fact it is, itself, adware-advertised. The software installs itself, without consent, on the user's computers and registry. It then sends messages such as "System Error, Buy this software to fix" or "Your System is infected with spyware, buy VirusProtectPro to clean it", redirecting the user to VirusProtectPro's homepage where he/she is prompted to buy the VirusProtectPro software.
There are many variants of this rogue family including: SpywareStrike, SpySheriff, SpyFalcon, SpywareQuake, MalwareWipe, Spylocked, SpyDawn and others.
The two easiest methods to remove it are RogueRemover and SmitfraudFix. Both are free and automated". Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirusProtectPro
DUBIOUS SITES
Here's whois data about the associated sites:
(Except from 888.com they look quite similar...)
feelsafeonline.com
Registrant: PrivacyProtect.org
Registrar: ESTDOMAINS, INC.
Registrated: 2 Aug 2007
Nameservers: ns2.feelsafeonline.com + ns1.feelsafeonline.com
IP Location: Ukraine - Kharkivs'ka Oblast' - Kharkiv - Inhoster Hosting Company
Read more: domaintools.com or whois.estdomains.com
everysecureway.com
Registrant: PrivacyProtect.org
Registrar: ESTDOMAINS, INC.
Registrated: 2 Aug 2007
Nameservers: ns2.everysecureway.com + ns1.everysecureway.com
IP Location: Ukraine - Kharkivs'ka Oblast' - Kharkiv - Inhoster Hosting Company
Read more: domaintools.com or whois.estdomains.com
aprotectionguide.com
Registrant: PrivacyProtect.org
Registrar: ESTDOMAINS, INC.
Registrated: 2007-08-02
Nameservers: ns2.aprotectionguide.com + ns1.aprotectionguide.com
IP Location: Ukraine - Kharkivs'ka Oblast' - Kharkiv - Inhoster Hosting Company
Read more: domaintools.com or whois.estdomains.com
da.888.com
Registrant: Guy Margolin. Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd. Europort 601-701. Gibraltar 99999. GI
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Registrated: 1995-11-08. Expires: 2011-02-14
Nameservers: pdns1.ultradns.net + pdns2.ultradns.net + pdns3.ultradns.net + pdns4.ultradns.net + pdns5.ultradns.net + pdns6.ultradns.net
IP Location: United Kingdom - Globix
Read more: domaintools.com or whois.networksolutions.com
WHAT TO DO...
Perhaps a good place to remind that AVG still offers several free editions
(Free for private and noncommercial use, that is).
They are a bit hard to find, but here are the urls:
Then there are Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool.
Microsoft releases an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday
of each month, and as needed to respond to security incidents.
And I'll always recommend: SiteAdvisor.
The basic version is still a free offer from McAfee...
Nano Art
I just heard about this by mail. But it's hardly public news as they started in 2005.
Still new to me though. And probably new to you as well. Well, that's all I know for now.
I'll return with more later, but so far here's the introduction to Nano Art:
The worldwide competition NanoArt 2007 is open to all artists 18 years and older. Online voting will open January 1, 2008 through March 31, 2008. Judging is via the Internet and decided by our site visitors. Winners will be notified and published online around April 15, 2008.
NanoArt is a new art form where micro or nanosculptures created by artists or scientists through chemical or/and physical processes are visualized with powerful research tools like Scanning Electron Microscopes. The monochromatic electron microscope scans are processed further using different artistic techniques to create pieces of art that can be showcased for the general public. Read more...
Nanoart21.org founded by artists/scientist Cris Orfescu will provide 3 high resolution monochromatic electron scans as seed images for artists to choose from. The participating artists will have to alter these images in any artistic way to finish the artistic-scientific process and create a NanoArt work. The artists or/and scientists are encouraged to participate with their own images as long as these visualize micro or nanostructures. More details...
THURSDAY 27: In my opinion this is probably the best addition to FireFox. If you surf a lot, you'll meet new unknown sites all the time. Should they all be trusted at first sight? Only if you don't care about security. However, asking your browser to disable all scipts permanently is not practical. Then again accepting all scripts simply isn't safe. A differentiated response would be optimal. Here NoScript comes to the rescue:
Japanese artists Sachiko Kodama and Yasushi Miyajima have used superparamagnetic nanoparticles to create an alien but beautiful sculpture "Morpho Towers, an artwork using ferrofluids controlled by magnetic fields.
Or in their own description as "an autonomous transformation of the material itself: sometimes it seems like a horn, sometimes a fir tree, and sometimes even like the Tower of Babel."
