A mortgage spam:
THIS IS OUR CLOSING TRY
We have made an effort to speak to you on many occurences and now is the time to respond! … However, based on the fact that our previous attempts to speak to you have failed, this will be our last notice to gain for you the lower rate. [Emphasis added]
Please!
The new Opera 8.0.1 includes an experimental feature called Browser JavaScript. It’s a collection of client-side scripts that automatically corrects known errors on websites as they’re displayed. Opera downloads updated scripts once a week.
It’s an extension of the User JavaScript concept. Firefox’s Greasemonkey is basically the same thing, and it’s gotten a lot of attention as a method for correcting or enhancing sites. The key difference is that these scripts are centrally maintained, and automatically updated.
Browser JavaScript is disabled by default, and can be turned on by putting Browser JavaScript=1 in the [User Prefs] section of your opera6.ini file.
(via Opera Watch)
Over the last few days, one of the viruses going around (probably a Mytob variant) has been trying to send its “Your account is being suspended! Open this file now!” come-ons. It forges the return address as support@example.net, admin@example.net, etc. We block any incoming mail using these addresses before it even gets to our virus scanner.
Now here’s the weird part. We’re also getting bounces sent to another domain we manage, let’s say another-example.com. Both sets are coming from someserver.another-example.com.br!
I think that the virus is finding itself on another-example.com.br and not recognizing the country-specific domain name, misreading it as just another-example.com. It then looks up the mail server, finds our domain, and targets both.
Continue reading
I just received spam from an organization urging me to boycott Microsoft products because they send spam.
The mind boggles.
Today’s spam haul included:
Hot penny Stocks
How amateur golfers (can think like a pro)
Half the second line was cut off, and I misread it as “Hot amateur golfers!”
On Sunday, a development version of Konqueror passed the Acid2 test. In the comments, someone posted a screenshot of iCab also passing the Acid2 test.
I did a double-take. iCab? Das Internet-Taxi für den Mac? The browser with the nice “Make iCab smile” campaign to encourage non-broken HTML on websites but CSS capabilities that have rivaled Netscape 4 as little better than a bad joke? That has been in perpetual beta for years with no sign of shipping a final release?
So I did the only thing I could do. I downloaded the new beta and tried it. Not only did it nearly pass Acid2 (there was a narrow white line across the middle of the face) but it actually handled all the layouts on my own site… something which it had always failed at spectacularly before.
The WaSP Buzz posted a congratulatory note to both this morning. Strangely, iCab is the first browser available to the general public that passes Acid2. The up-to-date Safari is still sitting inside Apple’s development labs, and while you can download the source for the updated Konqueror, you’ll have to wait for KDE 3.4.2—or possibly 3.5—to be able to use it yourself without running a bleeding-edge desktop. Update: Apple has just launched CVS access to WebCore, putting Safari in the same situation as Konqueror: you can download and compile the latest source code if you want, but if you just want to grab an installer, you’re gonna have to wait.
Follow-up in 2024: I’m surprised to discover that iCab still exists, and is still developed — though in 2020 the author rewrote it so it uses macOS’ built-in web renderer (like Safari) and not its own engine anymore.
Following up on my comments on Opera, Firefox supporters have a major blind spot as well. It has to do largely with the heavy emphasis on web standards among the developers and the early adopters, and the ideals of the open source/free software community. There are a lot of websites out there that don’t look quite right on anything but Internet Explorer, and there are sites out there that just plain don’t work in anything but IE. This is largely due to three facts:
In each case you can either change the browser to handle the websites, or you can change the web to handle the browser. Both approaches are difficult, and while the former often yields more immediate results, the latter is more ideal, because it benefits users of all web browsers. In most cases Opera has chosen to adapt the browser, while Mozilla has chosen to promote standards for web development. Continue reading
