Interesting WordPress Hack

They attack the RSS feed rather than the actual post (RSS Spam Cometh? – GigaOM details how the spammers have moved to RSS since that’s what people are using), tagging the ends of posts with tons of porn links. They do this because they have the MYSQL password! And you thought your passwords where safe, didn’t you? One of the files WordPress reads in order to manage your blog has your password in a MD5 hash format(#5367 (WordPress cookie authentication vulnerability) – WordPress Trac – Trac), which the attacker picks out and plugs into one of his spam generating machines and voila! Spammer gets paid.

Right now they’re just targeting the “Blogroll” category in WordPress, so I superimposed a subsequent “Blog Roll” category to replace it. <:-) >:-) <:-) >:-)

Obama Gets Battered and Praised, iPods and Global Warming

Apple and AT&T to launch iPhone 3G a lot sooner than we think? | The Boy Genius Report
Duh duh duh!!!!! iPhone 2.0!

‘We may have a second Lincoln’: McGovern explains endorsement switch – Barack Obama | News from Presidential Candidates, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House
Interesting….a black Lincoln…I’m not saying it’s impossible….

webcomics @ chainsawsuit by kris straub
His blog led me to this (Video – Breaking News Videos from CNN.com) which just makes me crazy! It’s the damned racial double-standard (as Kris points out). We can say George Bush looks like a monkey, but we can’t say that Obama looks like a monkey? I don’t care if it’s a previous racial stereotype….you can’t reserve words like that…but that’s what minorities do with the encouragement of the liberal left.

Crazy C Studios – Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays!
Yay! Disney reference! Yay!

LAist: An iPod Disco Makeout Closet: Welcome to the Porta-Party
This is hilarious! And kind of cool.

*| I branch off from there into a kind of mini rant that asks a question. I switched to the iPhone primarily because it was easier to manage the music on my phone. Since then I’ve found many other things that it does very nicely, primarily connecting the phone to the computer with a friendly (if sometimes annoying) interface. It also fits in with the fact that I have all these Apple compatible products. All this builds up to: why can’t companies unify and set standards for phone/computer connectivity? Why can’t I buy a Zune that interfaces as easily with my computer as the iPhone? Why must I buy three new chargers when I replace my MP3 player instead of re-using old chargers that STILL WORK? Wouldn’t it cut down on waste in this country thereby reducing the amount of garbage and pollution in the world? Or is it easier to whine about carbon footprints and what individuals can do to prevent global warming than take on big companies and insist on revolutionizing the way standards are set. And on that note, we segue to a tasty little global warming article! |*

Polar Bear Is Made a Protected Species – New York Times
I love how the secretary has to point out that this isn’t a global warming thing.

Social Networks Sell Out, Comedy, Netflix Limitations and Star Wars Classic Moments

Selling out Social Networks «

Sailors in Vegetable Oil | Design You Trust – Design, Photography, Fashion, Advertising Magazine and Community.

Apparently Netflix has a queue limitation of 500 discs…I have hit that limit with films that I wish to see….sigh ;)

And I just chugged 8oz of wheat grass. My local Jamba Juice was trying to get rid of their wheat grass so instead of paying for 2 oz, they gave me 8 oz for free. And I chugged it. That’s right…I’m insane. *takes a bow*

One of the things I was able to “save” (via photography) from my water-soaked box of mementos was an old issue of Star Wars Insider with the Top 10 Classic Trilogy Moments.

The Top 10 Greatest Moments Of the Classic Trilogy 10:  The Crawl / Tantive IV Chase - Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope 9:  “We Have Spotted Imperial Walkers!”  - Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back 8:  Luke Returns Home… For the Last Time - Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope 7:  Darth Vader Unmasked - Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi 6:  Luke Faces Vader On Dagobah - Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back 5:  Yoda Makes X-wing Take Flight - Star Wars:  Episode V The Empire Strikes Back 4:  Destruction of the First Death Star - Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope 3:  Darth Vader Overthrows The Emperor (Literally) - Star Wars VI Return of the Jedi 2:  Han Solo’s Deep Freeze - Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back 1:

Photoshop CS4, Home Cell Signal Boosters and Daily Comics

20080402_tightpencils_face.jpg (JPEG Image, 800×874 pixels)
Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots shares a pencil drawing she did…

Daring Fireball: The $64,000 Question
Adobe Photoshop CS4 is in beta…how do they keep finding things to improve?!?!

Cell Boosters Coming for the Home: Financial News – Yahoo! Finance
Too bad AT&T isn’t among the companies exploring this option…I hope they do soon…..

April Fools Fun and Comics

MySpaceTV Videos: IGN.com – Legend of Zelda Movie Trailer Premiere by IGN VIDEO
Amusing trailer….

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja
A delightful false ending for April Fool’s Day

Penny Arcade! – Nested Ironies
Tycho decries the need to identify a gun that shoots life as a weapon.
Then he shares an amusing picture…
Europa Universalis: Rome: I’m sorry, Marcus
Then he points the way to this delightful story.

So I don’t know how many people noticed, but Laura and I switched our profile coding for April Fools Day. We managed to confound at least one person, but it was still fun! If only Myspace hadn’t been a [bad word] the night before when I was trying to update my profile. It was INCREDIBLY frustrating. Gosh darn you MySpace! GRRRR!

Daily Comics and More Deaths….

VG Cats – Comics – Updated Monday
OMG! This if freaking brilliant!

xkcd – A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language – By Randall Munroe
It’s funnier because I actually learned about this in the obtainment of my degree in Information and Computer Science…not that I remember about it anymore…I just learned about it ;)

Penny Arcade! – Bedrock Concepts
Tycho ponders why the iPhone isn’t the best music player compared to the Zune…..interesting read.

E! News – Oscar-Winning Director Minghella Dead at 54
Found via Piled Higher and Deeper‘s blog entry. :( Have we hit the prescribed three deaths to make the famous people start dying for a while? With Dave Stevens and the Black Lagoon creature obit I think we have…unless he doesn’t count in favor of Heath Ledger…sigh

P/A Theme Song Explanation, Spontaneous Musicals and David Mamet Rants Against Liberalism

Tycho & Gabe Deconstruct the Front
The Penny Arcade theme song gets explained quite verbosely by the real life Gabe (Mike Krahulik) and Tycho (Jerry Holkins).

Food Court Musical on Vimeo
Hilarious spontaneous musical…

Vista SP1 Available Through Windows Update – News and Analysis by PC Magazine
We’ll see how it lives up to the hype….

village voice > news > David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’ by David Mamet
Absolutely brilliant.