Archive for the 'Technology' Category
My Sincere Apologies
Dear guests,
A few hours ago I discovered my entire website was compromised by a hacker. Through investigation, it was determined that malicious attack scripts were uploaded to my fully patched Coppermine gallery and executed on the server.
The result of those scripts was a very unfortunate iFrame script injection to all of my *.php files – thus impacting the blog, gallery, and a slew of other functions. What’s worse, the injected script redirected users to a malicious website that installed the Exploit-ByteVerify virus through running a Java applet.
I strongly urge you to update to the latest virusscan definitions and do a thorough scan of your system.
I have since taken measures to fully revert my website to a previous backup that is exploit free. Everything is now up and operational. Again I apologize for this unfortunate circumstance.
Posted on Thursday, 10th Apr, 2008
A Geek’s Christmas Card
My arrival home today was greeted by a surprisingly … complex … season’s greeting card.
 Outside |
 Inside |
Can you guess my major?
And, no…I don’t speak binary.
Posted on Thursday, 20th Dec, 2007
Block the damn spam bots
Tired of WordPress comment spam? — I certainly was.
Past tense you say? How is that possible?
Well it’s not a 100% fix, but I made modifications to my server’s .htaccess file and it appears to have ‘virtually’ eliminated all comment spam. By blocking the following IP address blocks, comment spam decreased from 1000+/month to ~1/month. (Or maybe WordPress is great at riding spam now or this site just isn’t popular with those bots).
Make these modifications yourself and see how much it helps!
.htaccess file
#being deny section
deny from 85.255.113.0/24
deny from 85.255.114.0/24
deny from 85.255.112.0/24
deny from 85.255.112.0/20
deny from 203.199.198.232
deny from 216.246.79.0/24
deny from 66.225.201.42
deny from 212.209.63.3
deny from 69.114.106.185
deny from 68.8.156.14
deny from 24.190.195.228
#end deny
Of course don’t forget to keep your WordPress up-to-date and use Akismet spam just in case.
Posted on Thursday, 5th Jul, 2007
I love my Treo
Yes…I am now in possession of a Treoin [tree-oh-in] – Treo 700wx Sprint. It’s no crackberry, but it’s just as addictive.
The best part:
1) Touch screen
2) Goodlink (Exchange) email
3) Google maps with traffic
4) External vibrate/silence switch! See 2nd picture. Now, why can’t every phone have this feature. ** See Dvorak’s rant “Shut up about the iPhone already”
The worst part:
1) 24×7 email
2) Always ‘on call’ 
Posted on Tuesday, 26th Jun, 2007
Crazy Secure
Is it just me or is this too secure…?
A friend of mine works for a telecommunications company as a support staff. When asked if he could be provided with a VPN login – this is what arrived in the mail.
Essentially, this RSA id is generated uniquely every 60 seconds. When you log into the company VPN, you need to “salt” your password by appending your uniquely timestamped RSA id. The same RSA id is generated on the authenticating server with atomic precision.
Sounds crazy isn’t it! I can’t believe how much intangible fears are really costing (and vice versa, making) a lot of people money.
Posted on Sunday, 25th Feb, 2007