Phishers Impersonating Paypal
Just poking a quick heads-up here, since this particular scam isn't being caught by some anti-phishing filters. It's entitled "PayPal Resolution Center - Remove Account Limitations", and it points here.
You get the typical bullshit that phishers use to scare you into clicking:
Notice of account temporary suspension
Dear PayPal Member :
#
we were unable to process your most recent payment. did You recently change Your bank,Phone to ensure that Your Service is not interrupted, please Update Your Account Information Today,by
Or Contact Paypal ® Member Services Team. We're Available 24 Hours aday, 7days aweek.
Security Advisory: When you log in to your PayPal account, be sure to open up a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type in the PayPal URL to make sure you are on the real PayPal website.
For more information on protecting yourself from fraud, please review the Security Tips in our Security Center.Click Here Remove Your Limitations Here
If this situation is not solved within the next 24 hours your account will be permanently suspended.
Sincerely,
PayPal Resolution Center
Ah yes, and what phish scam wouldn't be complete without a link for tips on protecting yourself from fraud. Funny stuff.
It looks like a pretty simple script. It doesn't use any credit card checksum verifiers or anything, so feel free to flood these assholes with either abuse or plausible-looking information that they will spend a while trying before they discard.
Director of "The Hobbit" anounced
Link: http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2250245,00.html
Apparently it's Guillermo del Toro, director of "Pan's Labyrinth". I've not seen the movie but Ritchie liked it which bodes well.
(Via Kottke)
"Look Around You" on the brain
This is perhaps the best send-up I've seen of the Open University type programs that seemed to dominate BBC 2 during the day throughout the 70's and 80's.
Of course, if you didn't grow up in the UK during that period, this is going to be nigh on incomprehensible.
"Thought muscles". Heh.
(Via Pharyngula)
The incompatible triad of foods
Link: http://www.georgehart.com/triad.html
When you mix mathematicians with foodies, you get some strange problems. This one for example:
Can you find three foods such that all three do not go together (by any reasonable definition of foods "going together") but every pair of them does go together?
(Via Kottke)
I'm clearly getting older...
I must be growing old; I went to a Fry's Electronics store to pick up a set of $30 speakers* and walked out with pretty much nothing else. It wasn't too long ago that doing that would have resulted in a very large credit card bill...
(Ok, I did pick up a copy of Guitar Hero III for the girlfriend (or was that for the Wii?) but that was mere opportunism.)
(* Logitech R-20s if you're interested. They sound decent enough.)
The Five "Why's"
Link: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/01/22.html
Joel Spolsky on how using the toddler's incessant cry of "why" can help improve performance. It's valid for software development and maintenance as well as (in his illustrated case) uptime and process.
He actually cites Sakichi Toyoda as the source of the concept, but, nah, it has to be a parent dealing with a demanding small child...
The building of the LEGO "Ultimate Collectors Millennium Falcon"
Link: http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/01/28/vlog-50-years-of-leg.html
Armando, this one's for you.
Rubbishing the stay-at-home father
Link: http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/features/n_9495/
While browsing through a friend's Facebook notes, I found a link to an older (2003) article from an American publication discussing the stay-at-home father.
Perhaps it was the intent of the author; perhaps it's the required attitude of a successful person, irregardless of gender, but the women interviewed have to rate amongst the least empathetic characters I've ever come across.
On hotel rooms...
...how, even in new hotels, do they manage to find television sets without any component, svideo or composite inputs?
Coax inputs are so last century. And I'd really like to use my computer to play movies on the bigger screen that's paid for as part of my room.
"Time Machine" Review
Link: http://duncandavidson.com/blog/restoring_from_time_machine/
A good review of the other part of using backup software: restoring.
(Via Daring Fireball)
Phoo
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur
While testing out a piece of software at work, I noticed one of the columns referred to "sulfur". Just before filing a low level problem report to correct the spelling mistake, I decided to make sure it wasn't one of the those English/American things.
What Brings Out The Hulk
I like the little story behind the Hulk Out List, that Kevin Koster, assistant director of JAG, just passed Kenneth Johnson a list of all the reasons that made Bill Bixby's skin turn green and destroy yet another shirt, but not the pants.
As detailed as it is, I wish it had references. #106, poison sushi?
I guess if I'm ever crazy enough to own the whole series and then also crazy enough to watch it, I'm going to have to have a printout of this list to check these things off :)
MrlMrlMrlMrlMrlMrlMrlMrl
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwD9bjGk1cY
"I Am Murloc" from Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain. Someone must have access to a pretty good Warcraft engine in order to create that video...
(Via Ricardo)
(Official Blizzard version can be found here)
Suspension of disbelief
Link: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/23/cloverfields-visual.html
BoingBoing has an interesting post on the suspension of disbelief and how fragile it is. The example in this case is from the recent "Cloverfield" movie and the introductory cue card, but they've covered the "uncanny valley" before.
Quantum And Consciousness - Gah!
If discoveries with the advance of time have taught us anything, it's that despite how special humans are, we have been removed from occupying front and center stage of the entire universe. The corollary of this is that if you look into the universe and see something pointing right back at you, you should double-check your work.
It seems, though, that wherever we have anything for which we lack all the details, and one of those things involves humans, someone is trying to tie them together. It's Human Chauvinism of the Gaps, and it often travels under some respectable cover.
