2004 June

Spammers Get 92 Million AOL Addresses

If there was ever a reason to stop using AOL’s service, this recent bit of news should be it. I feel sorry for anyone who is still using AOL (and consequently is stuck in the Stone Age of the internet, missing out on the greatest stuff.) Even my grandmother gets spam emails with porn in it, explicit words, and offensive images. Of course, if you don’t find girls getting freaky with horses offensive, you should stay on AOL.

“According to the criminal complaint, Jason Smathers of Harpers Ferry, W. Va., used his inside knowledge of AOL’s computer system to steal a list of 92 million AOL customer account “screen names,” and then sold them to Sean Dunaway, who is not an AOL employee.”

If you know of a Sean Dunaway, kick him for all of us out there who hates spammers.

Shure E2C Earphones Broke

The Shure E2C earphones that I ordered and received 3 months ago on March 3rd, has had one of the casings on the right side break. I have treated it well; never dropped it, stepped on it, or anything like that. Just one time I went to take it out of my ears, and the casing just split apart. The earphones still work, they function, but for how long in its current state? Who knows.

I really love these earphones, and it’s disappointing and frustrating to say the least. One expects that if they pay $110 for earphones, they would last for a long time (perhaps even butter your toast, too.) Long ago I purchased a cheap Sony brand earphones at Walmart for $10. They’ve lasted for over 4 years, and it still works to this day. While vastly inferior in sound quality to the Shure E2C earphones, the casing is solid as a rock.

So it looks like I have to return the earphones and have them either send me a new one, or repair the current one. I’m apprehensive, because I use these earphones everyday, multiple times through the day; to listen to music, to watch movies, and to play games. If they take a long time to fix it and return a fixed earphone, I’m going to be even more disappointed.

Sigh … what can one do? :(

Advertisement Sticker On Bananas

Alex Taylor has a post on a discovery he had made: advertisements on a banana. Usually you’ll see the brand name of the banana, such as Dole, or even tracking numbers, but ads on a banana? If there ever was a sign of a coming apocalypse, this would be it.

“Who came up with this brilliant scheme? And when will they be fired? How did the banana industry, one of the largest industries in the known universe, decide that they should get into marketing? These questions I cannot answer. But I can tell you why I think this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen since I first laid eyes on the poster for said movie, which features everyone’s favourite lasagna-eating cat striking a pose that you would never expect him to strike - ever.”

Gmail Is Too Creepy

A lot of people are clamoring to get Gmail invites (examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) and use Google’s 1GB web email service, but many of them aren’t looking at the dark side of Gmail, which is pretty dark indeed. Gmail-Is-Too-Creepy.com is a site the tells you about the dangers of Gmail and their policies. After reading it, I’m pretty set on not replying to anyone with a Gmail account, and I also hope those who do have it don’t send me emails from their Gmail account in the first place. I don’t see what the big deal is. 1GB is nothing these days with hard drives with lots of space quite cheap, why not keep all your saved mails on your own computer, where it belongs?

Dump Internet Explorer (Revisted)

As an extension to the Why You Should Dump Internet Explorer post, here’s a revisit to the topic by a security expert at SecurityFocus:

“The latest version of IE is 6, and it has certainly accumulated an impressive record of holes: 153 since 18 April 2001, according to the SecurityFocus Vulnerabilities Archive. There have been some real doozies in there. For instance, last August, Microsoft issued a patch that fixed a hole that the company described this way: “It could be possible for an attacker who exploited this vulnerability to run arbitrary code on a user’s system. If a user visited an attacker’s Web site, it would be possible for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability without any other user action.” Oh, is that all? Well, that’s super - simply visit a Web page, and you’re 0//N3d, d00d! “

The solution? Use a much better browser - Mozilla Firefox.

I Hate Roaches

Ever had a time when your brain would shut up? When I went to take a piss, I saw out of the corner of my eyes a huge roach running for dear life from me. I grabbed a nice, thick magazine and smashed the snot out of him. As I was about to resume relieving myself, my brain thought, “One down, a trillion more to go.” That’s the kind of thought that makes you wonder why you kill the ugly, nasty little buggers in the first place. I really hate roaches. Why, oh why, were they even created?

The L.A. Rock Music Scene

For a few years, good rock and roll from my generation was a rarity. Then the White Stripes became popular, and Coldplay made the piano cool again, and The Darkness showed that glam rock is great still. Now we have a rock revival that I’m excited to see unfold. It looks like the L.A. music scene is coming up with some awesome raw new talent, and I can’t wait to hear them. The L.A. Weekly has an article about some young up-and-coming talents that you should keep an eye out for. I’ve already heard about the all-female punk trio, The Like, and they have garnered some positive praises already.

I’ve found where you can download a few The Mean Reds songs, and they are really great. Especially check out Tasty Rhythm Man. You can also check out Say Anything and hear some tunes at their official website. You can check out Wires On Fires at their official website, and hear a single song. The others I can’t find a site for, or a song. In the links section to the right, under Music, you’ll find Pure Volume, an excellent site to check out some great music from bands you likely haven’t heard about yet.