Java, E-mail, Webmail and Vulnurabilities

I can feel a slight twinge of sympathy for Newegg, they seem like a nice company and I've used them for purchases in the past. However, I think they're in for a bashing on the internets as this morning they sent out an e-mail flyer with a Java script that opened a dialog box requiring a non-existent user name and password. You could not cancel out of the box, rendering your entire e-mail acount useless. Compounding the problem is that using webmail via a browser caused the same actions. Since the webmail pages are Java based, disabling Java in the browser denies access to your acount!

I fixed the problem with some skullduggery which eventually required me to completely delete my e-mail acount from Mail, I am currently re-downloading 21,000 e-mail messages which is not what I wanted to do on a busy work morning.

Newegg may have done us all a favor though in showing that e-mail readers and webmail systems that do not allow the suspension of Java are incredibly vulnarable to this sort of flawed code. In this case the problem was merely incompetence, what if the intent had been malicious?

Best Of Craigslist - Scooby Doo Edition

Nice ad in the local Craigslist. "Meddling Kids Not Included!"

Republicans Need To Hire A Songwriter

Disclosure: The fact that I spent many of my idle teenage hours staring at this album cover no way influences the opinions expressed in this post.

Joining John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne and Boston are the Heart sisters who, like their fellow musicians are objecting to the use of one of their songs, in this case "Barracuda," to promote Palin at the RNC.

From an e-mail sent to Entertainment Weekly by Ann & Nancy Wilson -

"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image...[It] was written in the late '70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women...There's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there."

Looks like the Republicans are running out of classic rockers to promote their candidates. Might I recommend Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" as a suitable alternative?

Food Fight!

I'm not sure which is stranger, a food fight at a Donna Summer concert in Chicago OR the the fact that it was a sell out?

Fox News Makes Racist Remarks About Kettle

Fox News, America's Election HQ and ever the bastion of fair and unbiased reporting has accused gossip rag US Weekly of "blasting" VP nominee Sarah Palin. At issue is a cover and story that is markedly unfriendly to the Alaska Governor. Apparently, by contrast, previous issues have devoted much ink to the happy Obama family of whom, the publisher is a big supporter.

I'm not a reader of US Weekly, however I am so terribly appreciative of Fox's one network crusade to keep election media reporting fair and balanced.

High Speed Longboarding

Rumored to be a Canadian, the video features a fearless longboarder hitting speeds of 100KM/H (62 mph) on the A8 autobahn (map) between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. He better keep going as apparently the German police would like a word with him about the stunt.

I'm partial to longboards myself (I have a Surf One) but even though we share the same wheel setup I'm not planning to hit my local freeway anytime soon.

From Rock God to RIAA Tool

"I hope he rots in jail," said Slash, the former Guns N' Roses lead guitarist. "It's going to affect the sales of the record, and it's not fair."

So says the former guitar player for Guns & Roses in the LA Times. He's referring to music industry blogger Kevin Cogill (a self-confessed GnR fan) who posted 9 yet-to-be-released tracks from GnR's long awaited new album on his blog. For his efforts Cogill received a visit by the FBI, was arrested and is currently out on a $10,000 bond. Suffice to say, his defence against the music industry heavyweights will be a public defender.

ADA Craig Missakian, prosecuting the case claims that Cogill's actions caused "significant damage." If by that he means the world discovered that the new GnR album sucks than I guess he's right about one thing. As for Slash (real name Michael McKagan), yeah, that's the spirit of rock n' roll, big bad rock star that you are. Why fight the man when you can work for him?

Browser Wars - New Forces Arrive

Hot on the heels of Microsoft's announcement of IE-8 comes a new entrant into the increasingly crowded browser space. Yesterday Google announced that it's browser project Chrome will be available for download sometime today. Google are claiming via an online comic book that this is not your father's software but a complete re-think of the way a browser should work and interact with the web and the user. They make a compelling case too.

A Bono style leak of some screen shots appeared yesterday and were subsequently removed. Currently (9am PDT) the Chrome download page takes you only to Google's search page.

Update: Press conference at 11am PDT, CNET will be live blogging.
Update: Windows version for download today at 12:00pm PDT

Strange Days Indeed

Palin seems to be an odd choice for VP for a candidate who is running on a platform of experience. The pairing seems a little like a Vegas wedding, the 2 having met only twice before and smacks of a desperate attempt to lock in the dissatisfied Clintonites. The Republicans are talking about her integrity and that she and McCain are like soul mates, or could it be that no one else (chris, Jindal, Romney) actually wanted the job?

Phil Hill R.I.P.

Lat night the USA's only Formula One World Champion Phil Hill died from complications associated with Parkinson's Disease. Hill dated from an era where so many of his co-drivers perished practicing their sport that his 81 years seems remarkable.

A very complex character, Hill seized the F1 title in late 1961 behind the wheel of his Ferrari. Tragically, the same race at Monza killed his team mate and fourteen spectators, a dark cloud always hung over his achievement. Hill went on to win 3 times at Le Mans before retiring to his native California.

The drivers of today stand upon the shoulders of great men like Phil who literally risked everything in their pursuit of speed. Next week's F1 round will be the Belgium Grand Prix at Spa, coincidentally a race Hill also won in 1961.

Phil Hill at Formula One.com

Last Night At The DNC

Nicely put, when can you start?

Byrne + Eno

The new album from Talking Heads' front man David Byrne and musical polymath Brian Eno is out and it's good. RIAA/label hating folks should head to the Everything That Happens Will Happen Today site where they can put their money where their mouth is and buy the whole thing direct from the artists concrned. $8.99 gets you a 320Kbs MP3 or FLAC (with 14 page PDF booklet), another $3 gets you all that plus a physical CD for the tactile amongst us. The album also streams for free plus there's a free MP3 single too.

Like I said, those who rage against the current system need to pony up and show our support for viable alternatives.

"The thing is nowadays, you'll have 20 men working, yet 60 men telling them 'You can't do that, you ain't got a tin hat on'".

The title quote is from Fred Dibnah, former Bolton steeplejack, TV star and steam engine fancier. Fred's philosophical musings, mostly uttered whilst at the top of some 300' chimney he was "felling" became a cult classic on UK television and thanks to YouTube can now be enjoyed anywhere.

Fred was a man who truly knew no fear. Not in our current tough guy, reality TV sense (Man Versus Swim-Up Pool Bar) but as someone who had a respect for the perils of his profession and had come to terms with the possibility that this day could be the last. A true character in a world increasingly full of pretenders.

Fred was taken by cancer in 2004 but has a website dedicated to him here. And as Fred would have said "By 'eck it were grand."

What If...

...Tom Waits had been part of Schoolhouse Rock? Would the conversation go something like this:

Teacher - "So Johnny what did you do this weekend?"
Johnny - "Well Teach, see there was this bar down by the docks. And back in the day she was a looker but now it's just a head of foam and legs like twizzle sticks. But the stilettos could still pierce and my blood ran red like Thunderbird on an obsidian sidewalk."
Teacher - "Er, thanks Johnny, Mary did you go to the park?"

Just wondering, that's all.

TV Production Trucks - A Study In Contrasts

NMT monitor wall & front bench, 1978 and NEP SS25 monitor wall & front bench 2008. Check out the pop-top Bud!

What Are They Gonna Do? Really I Mean

Many of Hilliary's supporters are still full of righteous indignation over slights, perceived and real, by the Obama campaign. But really, what are they going to do about it? Vote for McCain? Yep, that'll show that DNC. If ever there was needed a case of "get over it" now is the time.

Blogging

When blogs start to write about blogging it's generally a good indication that they've jumped the shark. This is not something I intend to do here by the way, my intent is just to mitigate any and all blame for my lack of recent postings.

The popular podcast This Week In Tech accused many blogs of doing nothing more than re-posting information from other blogs with a picture attached. I agree with their analysis and have always attempted to keep Life For Dummies a place of often ironic but at least original thought. Today, whilst feeling a little guilty about the irregularities of my postings I realized that it's better to post nothing than to write merely to fulfill an artificially self-imposed deadline or commitment.

Therefore, I plan to continue to blog, when, where and about whatever I want with a particularly big emphasis on the when and I shall not feel one wit of guilt for allowing extended periods of time to lapse between postings.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

Lefsetz & Solzhenitsyn

I first read Alexander Solzhenitsyn at 12 years old after watching the movie adaptation of Ivan Denisovich. His books were the perfect food for my teenage angst and led me to many other authors writing about social & political injustice around the world. I'm saddened at his passing but instead of writing my own piece on the man I lead you to Bob Lefsetz who has done a much better job than I could ever have.

As for rockers… Shit, the art form expired with Bon Jovi and the rest of the hair bands back in the eighties. To this day, I’ve never heard Jon Bon Jovi utter a negative word. He doesn’t want to offend anybody, he doesn’t want to risk his lifestyle, he doesn’t stand for anything. Whereas Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was only about the truth, he was willing to risk his life for the truth, he was driven to stand up to a repressive government. While in the twenty first century Justin Timberlake serves up African-American Janet Jackson after disrobing her at the Super Bowl, needing to be on America’s Team, one that is always right and does no wrong.

What has America’s Team become? One solely of rampant commercialism?

You took the words outta my mouth Bob. Find the full version here.

TSA - The Best & Worst Edition

Frequent travelers are well aware that the TSA experience varies widely from airport to airport. Blog or no blog, the TSA experience is one of inconsistency.

So, may I have the envelope please?

Best : San Diego & Dallas/Fort Worth
Worst : Atlanta Hartsfield & Chicago O'Hare

San Diego is cramped but calm & polite, no shouting or pouting, pretty typical SoCal attitude. DFW has the advantage of multiple points of entry so the lines are rarely long. On the dark side, ATL has the rudest & most incompetent staff & ORD is just complete chaos.

So there you have it, trophies are in the mail.

Saving Fingers (and hands)!

According to Sawstop, every 9 minutes a table saw related accident occurs. Using the body's natural ability to act as an electrical ground the Sawstop 10" saw blade instantly brakes & drops below the table. The demo video using a hotdog is truly, wincingly amazing, I thought that a demo using a live finger might be cooler but I'm not sure I'd volunteer myself.