Friday, May 31, 2002
Temporarily Disabled Word of the Day Feature
The dictionary.com site is down - so it was preventing the rest of my web page from loading. I think I have a work around - but until I can get time to implement it, I will disable the feature.
Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Test Your Email Forms Before You Spam
"I noticed that you are located in [City], [State] which is an area where we
would like to have a greater presence" - this is an actual quote from a spam I received offering me a career as a professional recruiter, in return for a "small investment". If you are going to use form fields in your spam, at least make sure they work, or are omitted if the fields are blank.
would like to have a greater presence" - this is an actual quote from a spam I received offering me a career as a professional recruiter, in return for a "small investment". If you are going to use form fields in your spam, at least make sure they work, or are omitted if the fields are blank.
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
K l e z Computer Worm - It is not me!
Today I finally received my fist K l e z infected email. (I actually received three altogether.) Although this particular computer worm was discovered on April 17th, I didn't receive an infected email until today. Because I am using Norton Anti-Virus, I was not infected, and no harm was done.
However, the most disturbing thing was that I received an email notification that I had sent an infected email to someone else. This is the nasty new twist with this worm - it grabs email addresses at random, and them uses those addresses as fake sender email addresses. So, even though I actually never sent anyone an infected email (Norton Anti-Virus scans all of my outgoing email as an extra security precaution), it appears that an infected email came from me, simply because my email address was in someone else's address book.
The important thing to remember about the K l e z worm, is that the sender's address of an infected email you received is not the actual source of the infection. It is simply an email address randomly gathered from the address book of an infected computer by the worm.
However, the most disturbing thing was that I received an email notification that I had sent an infected email to someone else. This is the nasty new twist with this worm - it grabs email addresses at random, and them uses those addresses as fake sender email addresses. So, even though I actually never sent anyone an infected email (Norton Anti-Virus scans all of my outgoing email as an extra security precaution), it appears that an infected email came from me, simply because my email address was in someone else's address book.
The important thing to remember about the K l e z worm, is that the sender's address of an infected email you received is not the actual source of the infection. It is simply an email address randomly gathered from the address book of an infected computer by the worm.
Yahoo! - First In-Office Study Dishes The Dirt On Desks
The average desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat, according this study by University of Arizona microbiologist Dr. Charles Gerba.
Saturday, May 25, 2002
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Bay to Breakers
Walked the Bay to Breakers race on Saturday. We were completely soaked with the rain by the end. Hopefully I will have some pictures from the race to post.
Friday, May 17, 2002
WinAmp Playlist now in Left Side Bar
My copy of WinAmp - a program for playing music files on a computer - now posts the current song it is playing, along with the last five played, to the left side bar of my home page. I used the DoSomething WinAmp plug-in and quite a bit of tweaking.
Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Monday, May 13, 2002
The Word Spy - fauxhemian
fauxhemian (FOH.hee.mee.un) adj. Relating to something that is bohemian in a fake or pretentious manner. —n. A middle class or wealthy person who affects a countercultural lifestyle. From WordSpy.
Manpower Survey Shows Steady Improvement in U.S. Employment Prospects For Third Quarter Of 2002
Manpower Survey Shows Steady Improvement in U.S. Employment Prospects For Third Quarter Of 2002
"U.S. employers will increase their hiring activity in the third quarter of 2002, continuing the steady upward trend toward recovery that began in second quarter, according to the Employment Outlook Survey, conducted by Manpower Inc."
Of the nearly 16,000 firms interviewed, 27% plan to add employees in the third quarter compared with only 21% in the second quarter of the year. Only 8% of employers expect to reduce their current workforce, compared with 10% in the previous period."
"U.S. employers will increase their hiring activity in the third quarter of 2002, continuing the steady upward trend toward recovery that began in second quarter, according to the Employment Outlook Survey, conducted by Manpower Inc."
Of the nearly 16,000 firms interviewed, 27% plan to add employees in the third quarter compared with only 21% in the second quarter of the year. Only 8% of employers expect to reduce their current workforce, compared with 10% in the previous period."
Saturday, May 11, 2002
Very Funny Article on How to Get Fired in 3 Hours or Less
"Most publications tell you how to get a job. Only we tell you how to lose one."
The author is trying to get fired by a fast food restaurant within three hours of starting work. This is one of the funniest articles I have read in a long time. SurfMetro: Get Fired in 3 Hours or Less
The author is trying to get fired by a fast food restaurant within three hours of starting work. This is one of the funniest articles I have read in a long time. SurfMetro: Get Fired in 3 Hours or Less
Friday, May 10, 2002
Mammas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys -- Really!
Employment as a cowboy ranked a measly 248th out of the 250 jobs reviewed in the latest "Jobs Rated Almanac".
"Despite the idyllic image, cowboys are paid about $31,000 a year, have limited prospects for advancement and face some of the greatest physical demands..."
Even though my father, grandfather and great grandfather were all cowboys, and I have worked a few roundups myself, I appear to have made the correct choice by not pursuing "cowboying" as a career. ("Cowboying" is actual term cowboys use. They tend not to have degrees in English.)
"Despite the idyllic image, cowboys are paid about $31,000 a year, have limited prospects for advancement and face some of the greatest physical demands..."
Even though my father, grandfather and great grandfather were all cowboys, and I have worked a few roundups myself, I appear to have made the correct choice by not pursuing "cowboying" as a career. ("Cowboying" is actual term cowboys use. They tend not to have degrees in English.)
Critical Thinking On The Web
[Broken link to Consultant Debunking Unit fixed - 5/29/02.]
Critical Thinking On The Web is an excellent site of quality links to websites about critical thinking, including the Skeptic's Dictionary and the Consultant Debunking Unit.
In the site authors' own words: "This site aims to gather in one place links to all the most useful critical thinking resources on the web. It certainly doesn't even try to link to every critical thinking-related page - just the ones that, in my opinion, are reasonable quality and worth a visit."
Link from Ex Libris.
Critical Thinking On The Web is an excellent site of quality links to websites about critical thinking, including the Skeptic's Dictionary and the Consultant Debunking Unit.
In the site authors' own words: "This site aims to gather in one place links to all the most useful critical thinking resources on the web. It certainly doesn't even try to link to every critical thinking-related page - just the ones that, in my opinion, are reasonable quality and worth a visit."
Link from Ex Libris.
Wednesday, May 08, 2002
Picture of Me as a Toddler
Some of you have asked what happened to the picture of me as a toddler that used to be on the front page of this site. It is now on my about page.
I found it when I was sorting through some old pictures. My mom reminded me it was from a set of portraits taken at the JCPenny Portraits studio.
I found it when I was sorting through some old pictures. My mom reminded me it was from a set of portraits taken at the JCPenny Portraits studio.
Microsoft Interview Brain Teasers
This is a list of Brain Teaser questions Microsoft asks during interviews. These types of questions are becoming increasingly common in interviews. How many can you answer?
Monday, May 06, 2002
Major Study Finds IT Workforce Declines Five Percent in Past Year
In this Press Release from the ITAA, 500,00 IT jobs vanished last year. The good news is that this shrinking of the IT workforce was temporary, and there will be a growth in IT jobs this year.
Saturday, May 04, 2002
Err Msg: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and...
Weird error message/KB article from Microsoft: Err Msg: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and...
Wallpapers from National Geographic
A great source for nature wallpapers is National Geographic's Photo of The Day. They have a archive section too. My favorite is this one, although my wife thinks it is gross.
Thursday, May 02, 2002
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
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