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A brief history:

  1. Spammers send mail directly to victims.
  2. Server admins block by source, victims complain and try to get spammers kicked off their networks.
  3. Spammers relay through third-party servers to disguise their origin.
  4. Server admins shut close relays, and block mail from open relays.
  5. Spammers relay through trojaned zombies straight to victims.
  6. Network admins block outgoing mail traffic except through their servers.
  7. Spammers relay through zombies’ ISPs’ mail servers.
  8. ????

We’re in the early stages of step 6, with broadband ISPs starting to block outgoing direct-to-MX mail traffic. The obvious response by spammers is, of course, Continue reading →

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A while back I received a strange spam containing a quantum physics paper. At the time I wasn’t sure what to make of it, although someone suggested it might just be a randomly mailed document sent by a virus.

Someone else who received it referred to it as Idea Spam—spam designed not to sell or advertise a product, but to promote an idea. Basically, spam as a meme vector.

Another person characterized the paper (or rather, the paper’s author) as a crank. Apparently it’s not unusual for pseudo-scientists to indiscriminately send their “findings” to anyone they think might listen. My favorite quote from this discussion:

i heard that one professor (i can’t remember whom) has a folder in his cabinet titled “public relations” where he stuffs things from these maniacs. when he was asked why he didn’t just label the folder “nut cases,” he replied that “then they’d get mad. this way, they will feel like i might look at it later and just go away.”

And so the mystery is solved.

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I’ve never really considered Noble Causes’ Race Noble to be a reference to the Flash beyond sharing the speedster archetype—especially since the Nobles owe a lot to the hero family concept pioneered by the Fantastic Four—but a scene from Noble Causes #6 has me ready to change my mind.

The Nobles are both heroes and celebrities. Race, the middle child, shocked his parents—and the world—by marrying an ordinary bookshop owner instead of another super-hero. At this point, Liz has become completely overwhelmed by the life she has chosen, and needed to take some time off. Continue reading →

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OK, if you know me at all, you’ll know why this was not well targeted:

Ooh, an official NFL Super Bowl Patch

Oh, I’m in the right demographic, but I can’t say I’ve ever been remotely interested in sports, especially spectator sports. Let’s see… I saw one Superbowl and attended one baseball game, both as Boy Scout activities, and I watched a rugby match in France with a pub full of Australians because I had come down with the Colombian death flu and really didn’t have anything else to do, but couldn’t quite bring myself to stay in the hotel all day.

Yep, that’s about it.

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I’ve got to start reading BBspot more often. I wandered in there via Mozillazine and found this post about Microsoft’s new antispyware program removing Internet Explorer.

“It shows how powerful our AntiSpyware program is,” said Weatherbee. “Not only is it able to remove spyware from the system, but also the source of most spyware. Our competitors can’t match that.”

Ah, techie satire!

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At the comic store this week I actually flipped through the current issue of Green Lantern: Rebirth. And I was shocked to find that it made sense.

I’ve been avoiding the miniseries because, in general, I’m of the opinion that it’s better to move on than to go back. Yeah, it took me years to warm up to Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, but I’m not of the opinion that Hal Jordan is the one, true GL. That said, what they (DC Editorial) did to Hal was basically insane and spitting on their own character.

A decade later, DC is “correcting the mistake.” And who does DC go to when they need to revamp or repair a hopelessly tangled character? Geoff Johns. He did it with the Flash’s Rogues. He did it with Hawkman. Heck, he even tried to bring back Hal as the Spectre. And now he’s straightening out the GL mess. Continue reading →