Archive for May, 2007

From the Spam Files

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

This is another selection of actual headers from some of the myriad spam messages that I’ve received lately, obfuscated where appropriate:

From: Rachel Bradshaw 
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.00.6) Personal
X-Priority: 3
To: Basscomm 
Subject: Crazy defoliator

This is the only non-overt advert for ‘performance enhancing’ prescription medications at low, low prices. The next three are, in a frightening way.

From: Teresa Hurley 
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.00.4) Personal
X-Priority: 3
To: Webmaster 
Subject: Hymen destroyer

There’s just too much innuendo here, I can’t choose just one thing to say.

From: Hank Schultz 
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.00.4) Personal
X-Priority: 3
To: Webmaster 
Subject: Happy Viagra

I guess this is implying that somewhere there is a quantity of depressed Viagra infiltrating the supply?

From: Margaret Benson 
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.00.0) Personal
X-Priority: 3
To: Basscomm 
Subject: Orgasmotron

The mental imagery is equal parts intriguing and horrifying.

Posted in spam | Comments Closed

Burning WoW

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

I quit playing World of Warcraft on June 12, 2005 making it 1 year, 11 months, and 17 days since I’ve played it last. Not that I’m counting. Imagine my surprise, then, when the following arrived in my mailbox:

Now, ignoring all of the things in that picture that make me a huge dork, you’ll notice, around the center, that I have been sent a DVD that has the free 10-day trial on it (as well as the original version, should I have misplaced it, or course). I’m guessing that the unsolicited email announcement I got about it combined with the media blitz that I absolutely can’t get away from just wasn’t quite enough to pique my interest in the game, since the expansion’s been out for a full four months since the game came out and I still haven’t managed to get to the store and buy it.

Of course, if I do reinstall the game, install the expansion, play for 10 days, decide I like it, and then decide I want to resume my subscription, I’ll have to pony up $40 for the full price of the expansion, whether I download it from Blizzard directly or get a box from the store. Heck, I don’t even really need the box, I have the full version of the game. I just need that precious serial number.

Posted in MMORPGs | Comments Closed

Brian Clevinger (doesn’t really) sucks!

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

It has been brought to my attention that searching Google for the phrase “brian clevinger sucks” brings up a grand total of 0 results.

This post is to fix that.

I’ve never actually met Brian, so I don’t really know if he sucks or not, but I read a post on his site that I had to act on.

Oh, and there was that time that he asked for some files of the movie sequences from Final Fantasy VII that I ripped, put in a big ‘ol file, hosted, emailed him the link and then I saw was downloaded exactly once. Then the project never materialized in any form I could see, and I didn’t get so much as an insincere thank you email in return.

Thanks for opening the Old Wounds(tm).

His site.

EDIT – Well, I didn’t actually think I’d get a response since I was mostly just goofing around, but I did. Edited accordingly.

Posted in pointless | 3 Comments »

Skype

Sunday, May 6th, 2007

Skype is a program that allows you to make phone calls for free over the Internet, and for a fee to land lines. Sounds like an interesting deal, and I know of a few people that use it, so I decided to give it a try.

I went through the install process and setting up my headset and video device. Skype supports video calls, and detected my TV-Tuner as a video device, which would have made things interesting.

By installing Skype, I had increased the amount of instant messaging programs installed on my computer to three: Skype, Xfire, and Trillian. Even more if you count my IRC client, XChat, and the chat-thing that comes with GMail. Most of these have the option (checked by default) to automatically start up and log you in to their respective services as soon as you start your computer, because you obviously wouldn’t ever want to use your computer and not be available to be contacted on any one of half a dozen different networks. I prefer to start and stop these services on my own, primarily so my computer doesn’t take an inordinate amount of time to get to a usable state, so I immediately sought out and unchecked the box labeled “Start Skype when the computer starts”, closed Skype down and went about my business.

Later on I decided that I was going to try and make a call, but to my surprise when I started it up the “Start Skype when the computer starts” option was checked. Upon further investigation, it turns out that this option exists within two places in the program: on the main menu and under the Options menu. I turned both of them off, restarted the program and the options were again checked in both places. This is apparently a known issue without an effective workaround that has been around for some time.

It’s a minor issue, but I’m not convinced that it’s actually a bug. This certainly seems like a design decision, as it hasn’t been fixed in at least two years. Ignoring my instructions is a major no-no, so it got uninstalled. Perhaps I’ll try it again if they get this ‘bug’ fixed.

Posted in software | Comments Closed

User update

Saturday, May 5th, 2007

I’ve gone through and culled some of the more obviously fake users from the database. Yes, that includes you, ‘carinsurance’. If you were a real person you might want to think about choosing a new online identity.

Posted in site news | Comments Closed

You’ll pardon me if I don’t start doing cartwheels

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

In the midst of the spam-fest that is my Inbox, I found this gem (irrelevant bits removed):

******************************************
Your refund for ICANN Fee overpayment
******************************************

Dear basscomm,

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN(R)) recently agreed to reduce their Registrar Transaction Fee from $.25 to $.22. What does this mean for you?

Good news. You have been credited $.03/yr for each domain name you registered or renewed dating back to July 1, 2006* — $.03 has been placed into your Go Daddy(R) account with this customer number: xxxxxxxx.

Your in-store credit will be applied to your purchases at GoDaddy.com(R) until it’s gone or for up to 12 months, whichever comes sooner. If you have any questions, please contact a customer service representative at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

<link removed>

As always, thank you for being a Go Daddy customer.

<Signature, disclaimer, etc.>

Copyright (C) 2007 GoDaddy.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

To put that into context, I have two domains registered through GoDaddy, but only one that fits the criteria, which means that I have a grand total of $0.03 in credits. And while I both understand and appreciate that someone hopes that this is a gesture that is going to generate loads of revenue, I think it’s a bit silly. I’m not getting back the $0.03 that I overpaid last year, I’m getting credited $0.03 on future purchases (until the credits run out, of course).

And yes, I’m being silly about the whole thing. I still use and have no issues with Go Daddy’s services. I’m sure that this credit is going to be a greater boon to those who hold large quantities of domain names. Heck, with this credit, if I had 299 domains I could renew one of them for free. Well, for free plus the $0.22 ICANN fee.

Posted in site news | Comments Closed