CSS Refactoring
If the U.S. government’s suggestion not to use Internet Explorer isn’t enough of a reason to switch to Mozilla Firefox, there I have another: CSS development is so much easier with Firefox. Just download the web developer extension and you’ll find editing CSS is a breeze. You can edit the CSS in a sidebar and see how changes affect the page in real time. Or, what I found most useful was the ability to show the div classes and IDs on the page.
Over the last week or two, I’ve been refactoring my Wordpress and personal CSS files, pulling out common style information. So our family web site and my weblog both have the same feel. The web developer extension on Firefox made that chore much easier.
Why I don’t buy video games
This is a frivolous post. Just let me get that out of the way. Ever since Mark told me that he was subscribing to my weblog, I’ve shot down each idea I had as “too stupid” to put on my weblog. “Why would Mark want to read about that?”, I’d ask myself. Of course, I would want to read Mark’s trivial posts just because he’s my cousin. Yet somehow I find it hard to believe anyone would think the same about me. I’m trying to overcome this blogger’s block (I guess that term isn’t original), thus this post.
My birthday is coming up. (Paypal donations accepted in lieu of a gift.) My brother Ben gave me an early present - the Knight Rider computer game. I don’t know much about computer games (this is now the only one I have), but I believe there are games with better graphics, better sound, and better stories. However, what gives this game so much appeal, is that it fulfills a childhood dream for every one my age: to drive KITT. The story line is cheesy (just like the show). For some contrived reason, you have to chase down that bad guy’s car. He flies over the railroad tracks just before the train comes through. What do you do? Wait for the train? No! Turbo Boost!
Whew! I’m getting a little too worked up here. Yeah, it was fun to turbo boost. The same sound effect as from the show. The same background music as the show. I was David Hasselhoff.
Didn’t I have a point to make? Oh yeah… it’s why I don’t buy video games. They’re way too much fun. They take way too much time. And I’m way too busy being Daddy, husband, church bookkeeper and student of the Word. So, somebody ask me in about a month whether I have faced off with KARR on the final level. If I don’t say “not yet”, then tell my brother not to buy me any more computer games.
Brilliant Ebay Spoof
Last night, I received a brilliant ebay spoof email. I was informed that my account had been compromised and I needed to confirm my account information. The correct link to signin.ebay.com was in the email. It took me a few minutes to realize that the link, while it read “http://signin.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?etc” actually went to “http://signin.ebay.com-update.us/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?etc” or something like that. The email included warnings about email spoofs and instructed the user to look for “https://signin.ebay.com” in the address bar and the padlock in the lower right corner of the browser (Internet Explorer).
I clicked on the link. It brought me to this “ebay” page. Take a look at it. The address bar shows “https://signin.ebay.com”. There is the padlock in the lower right corner. I must be on an ebay site. But I wasn’t. I was actually at “https://s.p2.hostingprod.com/@com-userverify.us/ssl/eBayISAPI.php…”. You can see the last part of the URL off to the right part of the address bar. The ebay url is actually a bit of text from the page that has been positioned over top of the address bar. You can see how it’s a few pixels off in my browser (IE 6 on XP).
Wow! These guys are smart. It took me a while to figure out what they were doing. They took the ebay signin page and added some clever Javascript to position text over the address bar in IE. How could a non-technical user be expected to recognize this as fraudulent? The ebay web site directs users to always look for the address bar to begin with “http://signin.ebay.com/”. And it does! The sacred address bar has been violated. And they even made it a secure connection. Brilliant. Wickedly brilliant.
Actually, I left out a few details in the above account. The first thing I did was to report the email to ebay. I believe I sent it to them within an hour of it being sent out. Ebay responded immediately that it was not from them. I assume they had quite a few people working late last night. The link no longer works this morning. Also, I neglected to mention that my spam filter identified the email as an ebay spoof and didn’t want me to see it. And, even when I bypassed that and read the message from my spam folder, Mozilla Firefox didn’t succumb to the trick. However, I’m not going to spend any time praising the virtues of Mozilla on this one. I’m sure that if Mozilla had 95% of the market share, ebay spoofs would exploit defects in Mozilla rather than those in IE. But in any case, the point remains that Mozilla users didn’t get spoofed.
The thing that most puzzles me is how someone who is clearly talented could spend so much creative energy committing a felony. I hope they get to mull over that question in prison.
Ads are going bananas
TV Ads. I don’t have a TV.
Radio Ads. I listen to public radio.
Email Ads. I use Spambouncer.
Web Ads. I use Mozilla with the Adblock extension.
Now there are ads on my bananas. Each bunch of bananas has a cat sticker with “See Garfield The Movie” on it. What can I do!? Switch from Dole to Chiquita?
Unsubscribe Hassle
A while ago, I bought some ink from Epson. Just as the ink ran out, I received a spam from Epson offering to sell me more ink. Clever. I followed the unsubscribe link and then clicked on the “Remove Me” button.
Then I received this email from Epson:
This is to confirm that we have received your request to receive no further e-mail messages from us.
Does that strike anyone else as ironic?
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