Posts

new form of security risk

Tabbed Browsing Flaws Detected: Tabbed browsing, one of the more popular features built into alternative Web browsers, contains a security flaw that puts users at risk of spoofing attacks, research firm Secunia warned on Wednesday.

OK... two points. First off, I have no idea if Secunia know shit about shit (which is not to say they don't). Second, this is an interesting observation about tabbed browsing... but there is a way to minimise the problem. When you're doing internet banking or an online purchase, do it in a single window with no other tabs open. While that may not be entirely convenient, it's better than the alternative. Actually three points: multiple windows of IE can behave in the same way - IE tends to jump to the front in odd ways. So it's not confined to tabbed browsing - this is a vulnerability related to having multiple pages open at once.

Comments have been closed on this post due to comment spamming fucktards.

news bits

18,000

Holy crap, this blog just reached 18,000 hits. I do wonder what the hell caused a spike a few days ago (17 October 2004, 266 hits; 18 October 2004, 122 hits) but I only get a readout of the last 100 pageviews. Most of the traffic seems to be related to the too amusing not to share post (featuring Marilyn Manson & Dita Von Teese hugging a koala). Not that any sods have left comments on MY page ;) Plenty of forum posts though, eg. Marilyn Manson's vacation photo. If I was paying extra for bandwidth I'd be pretty pissed off, actually.

various stuff

  • Every exit [dive into mark], which should have been titled "dive out of mark". I wonder how long he'll last. I'm not sure how I'd go if I went cold turkey on posting stuff the the net.
  • Summer has officially arrived in Brisvegas. Motherfucker. HOT. On Saturday I thought the external temperature readout in my car was playing up, then realised that it REALLY WAS 37.5deg outside.
  • I hate software which refuses to perform long, involved loading routines in the background. Bloody Citrix keeps leaping in front of the windows I am trying to use, since it'll take a good 2-3 minutes to load up. Adobe Acrobat is another repeat offender.
  • photographers: nblaney - everyday objects can look amazing.
  • I choose to browse with plugins switched off (yay Opera!). It's amazing how many sites are 100% reliant on Flash - they don't even display a message saying 'you need flash' or whatever. This is pretty basic stuff. I guess it's the Flash equivalent of not explicitly setting a web page's white background.
  • photographers: mactoplac (dead hog). OK, here's a pic which took some serious guts to post. The guy was supposed to kill a pig, but couldn't do it. His uncle did it (quickly). When the guy returned, he took a photo. This is life in the most direct sense, I guess. Not excessively graphic, but if you're sensitive to this sort of thing give it a miss.

powerpoint alternative

S5: An Introduction (Opera users should hit F11 to toggle into/out of this page in its presentation mode).

S5 is a system designed to make a web page display like a powerpoint, based on a valid XHTML document and some javascript. Certainly interesting and really quite impressive. Plus, it does away with the need for bloaty PPT files.

slashdot

news bits

photo time

two citycat ferries crossing the brisbane river

had to do some photoshop work on this to deal with smoke haze. there were several bushfires upwind of brisbane that day. for the record, the convention centre may have an interesting roofline but it sure was a pain to mask it in photoshop ;)

Labels:

democrawhat?

Crikey - Murdoch attacks on the Greens: Many social commentators point to five key factors required for a healthy democracy. We need a strong opposition, an independent and fearless media, an engaged public, a series of checks and balances on power, and an honest and accountable government. In this election we have gone backwards in all five categories, and a turn around is unlikely in the near future.

ditch internet explorer

As already noted, it's MS patch time again. Why? Read on...

Netcraft: Latest IE Flaws Provide Opportunity for Phishers: The latest Internet Explorer security holes offer new ways for phishing scams to present realistic spoofs of financial web sites. One of the flaws allow fraudsters to display the URL of a trusted site in Internet Explorer's address bar, while presenting content from a different web page in the browser window. Another vulnerability could allow sophisticated attackers to create spoofed pages displaying the golden 'lock' icon indicating a secure SSL session, which has often been cited as a differentiator between legitimate sites and scams.

What a perfect opportunity to ditch IE for a better browser like Opera or Firefox.

it's meme-a-riffic

Given that even my boss (well, acting-acting-boss-who's-resigned-anyway) has muttered that today should be called due to lack of interest and everyone should go home.... together with the fact that my job so far today has involved telling three different people in a row stuff they most likely didn't want to hear and will be ringing soon in order to whinge.... I decided to nick a livejournal meme that's spreading in that infectious disease kind of way.

Name a CD you own that no-one else on your friends list does

Hmm. Probably local band stuff like the self-titled Orphans of Cool CD; or my Feeble's Junky - 'Panticlerevgator' CD. I'd love it if I was wrong and other people had these too :)

Name a book you own that no-one else on your friends list does

Just Another Empire by Mark Driver. Self-published book I bought over the net.

Name a movie you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that no-one else on your friends list does

Well... I doubt anyone else would have taped and kept Jean de Florette but I could be wrong.

Name a place that you have visited that no-one else on your friends list has

Ipswich Railway Workshops while they were still an operational Queensland Rail workshops facility. It was an entire subculture known only to those who worked there.

Labels:

news bits

  • NEWS.com.au | Australians are richer than ever (October 14, 2004): AUSTRALIANS are richer than ever before, but our savings accounts are increasingly empty, new figures have shown. Fucking stupid headline. If you read this properly, you can figure out that what has happened is a small number of rich people have become much richer, the rest of the country is living beyond its means and is totally mired in debt.
  • The Nat who could spoil Telstra sale - National - www.smh.com.au: If Mr Joyce wins the crucial Senate spot for the Queensland Nationals, as seems increasingly likely, he says he will not be supporting the sale of the Government's majority share of Telstra until he can be convinced rural telephone services are up to scratch. The article talks about how Joyce's parents have been fobbed off by Telstra over problems with their phone, but all of a sudden after the election they're falling over themselves to fix things. Pathetic.
  • Virgin challenges Apple's iPod - Business - www.smh.com.au. Apparently the player will have 5 gigs capacity, include a radio tuner, work with all music formats and cost about AUD$340. Not bad, actually.
  • Prince stirs it up with suicide bomber video - People - www.smh.com.au: The lyrics of the song tell of the trauma of a girl of bi-racial descent battling prejudice following the September 11, 2001 attacks that sparked an initial wave of attacks against Arab Americans. Oooh, you're not allowed to say such things in America. That'd be like saying the Columbine school masacre was linked with jocks beating the shit out of geeks.
  • Slashdot | Brain Controlled Computing a Reality: [A] quadriplegic with wires run from 100 tiny sensors implanted in his brain and out to a computer can use his thoughts to control a computer well enough to operate a TV, open e-mail and play Pong with 70% accuracy.
  • Firemen sacked for using fire engines to meet women - World - www.smh.com.au: Nineteen firefighters in Sacramento, California have been disciplined for using city fire engines to meet women.
  • NEWS.com.au | New popemobile a Ferrari (October 14, 2004): FERRARI president Luca Montezemolo said today the Italian Formula One team would build a special car for Pope John Paul II to mark his 26 years as pontiff. Well, obviously.

look, that was a non-core election promise - look! terrorists!

the road to surfdom | This election is about trust, which notes a new record in the Coalition shitting on its election promises: just four days after the win, they're going back on their financial outlook. I would hope in four days you haven't forgotten that this election was largely won on financial issues.

Sadly, all the 30-second attention span fast food drones out there in TVland will have forgotten already. This is how the Coalition stays in power. The populace is easily led and incredibly forgetful; while the media are on such a tight leash they don't remind anyone about this stuff.

/. and the reg

  • Slashdot | Ten Security Bulletins From Microsoft. Patch time.
  • Slashdot | Political Cybersquatting Or Free Speech? Ultimately people will always be able to come up with some domain name that could possibly be associated with you/your organisation. The most workable solution IMO is to get one good domain and promote that as your official domain. If you're worried - and you have the budget - snag anything which is so close to that one good domain as to be indistinguishable from it. ie. thing.org, thing.net, thing.com and NOT thingbiz.com thingy.net thatthing.com. Then, take into account that politics is an extremely dirty game - so pollies should expect this and counter it if they think it's a problem.
  • Slashdot | Sony Launches DVD-Burning Appliance. No doubt the adverts will have miniscule text at the bottom saying "stealing movies robs actors". Sony is ethically pretty dodgy on this - Sony sells albums/movies/etc, sells blank media, sells recording devices... then turns around and claims it is losing money when people combine the three products. Of course, it's not just Sony. But I notice it since I'm a consumer slut for Sony gear (if I was rich it'd be Bose).
  • Was Bush packing Wi-Fi in TV debate? | The Register . Includes a suggestion on how to catch him out if he tried it at the final debate, assuming he did, which seems pretty likely to me :)

news bits

  • NEWS.com.au | Smoking ban in pubs, clubs (October 13, 2004). Fantastic, except for the excessively long phase-in period. Can't stand all the crap that gets trotted out about job losses and pubs closing. People go to the pub to drink (and maybe even socialise). Besides anything else, smokers who whinge about this can stick their lit ciggies up their arse - you can stop forcing your choice on other people. YOU can go outside and smoke, the guy behind the bar cannot go outside to avoid your smoke. Similarly, my athsmatic gf will be able to go out without literally risking death. So shut the fuck up, smokers.
  • Crean to give up shadow treasury role. 13/10/2004. ABC News Online: Mr Crean says the party should not be bickering in public and he is urging his colleagues to shut up. Look what that did to the Democrats, for instance...
  • US throws free trade deal launch into doubt. 12/10/2004. ABC News Online: The US ambassador to Australia has cast doubt on whether the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will take effect in January as planned. ... Ambassador Schieffer says the US is concerned about the move to penalise pharmaceutical companies for frivolous patent applications. Read that back a few times.
  • NEWS.com.au | Alston takes BSA chair (October 13, 2004): FORMER IT and Communications Minister Richard Alston is set to become chairman of telecommunications equipment company Broadcast Services Australia (BSA). The fuckwit luddite lands a well-paid job. There ain't no justice.
  • Phone jamming to appease French filmgoers. 13/10/2004. ABC News Online: The French Government has responded to a long-standing request by the film industry for support and announced it will approve the installation of signal blockers in cinemas, concert halls and theatres. Because, hey, you can't interrupt a French film for a few seconds without completely losing the plot ;) That said, mobiles in movies are a major piss-off. Gigs I don't care about - they're generally too loud to hear the phones anyway.
  • NEWS.com.au | Entertainment | Paris won't go naked (October 13, 2004): Paris Hilton says she ... wants to be taken seriously as an actress ... and rules out taking part in nude scenes. Now THAT is comedy.

can u dig it?

PWEI REFORMING!!! PWEI RE-*GASP*-FORMING!!!! *GASP* *WHEEZE* OK... fanboy episode under control... :)

Pop Will Eat Itself: The Reformation of Pop Will Eat Itself After months of speculation, we can finally confirm that Pop Will Eat Itself are back together for a short series of gigs in January. The band have been working together since the beginning of the year, and have been working on new tracks, as well as rehearsing for the January dates.

New tracks!

Pity they're only gigging in the UK, well more's the pity I don't live there.

news bits

  • NEWS.com.au | PM gets green light for reforms (October 11, 2004): John Howard has full control of the Senate within his grasp after an emphatic election victory that will allow the Coalition to embark on an ambitious reform agenda, including the $30 billion sale of Telstra and further industrial relations changes. This is unbelievably depressing. The senate looks like it is going to be controlled by raving right-wing Bible-bashers. I hate the way our system can end up like this - some group or independent representing a tiny proportion of the population can hold the balance of power.
  • NEWS.com.au | Labor message garbled (October 11, 2004). Should be appended with: "and voters don't think for themselves". The Labor party pisses me off when it does these post-loss blame allocation frenzies. They lost what was always going to be at least a close election. They should be concentrating on forming a strong opposition, but instead they're fuelling their own bad press. For example, Labor has fed the media with the devastating "train wreck" description: 'Blame Latham for this train wreck' - Election 2004 - www.smh.com.au. The Liberals must be laughing - they don't even have to do any work to finish burying Labor, the opposition is doing a fine job.
  • NEWS.com.au | Investors pump up Telstra (October 11, 2004): SHARES in Telstra Corp jumped higher today after John Howard's historic election victory boosted the chances that the Government would sell its remaining $30 billion stake in the telco.
  • NEWS.com.au | Democrat death knell (October 11, 2004): The party that once held the balance of the power in the Senate now faces a major struggle to have an influence in national politics. *froth* stupid...damn...democrats...*gark*...had a good leader...*rage*... imploded.... fuckers!!!
  • NEWS.com.au | Bin Laden hunt in too-hard basket (October 11, 2004): COALITION commanders in Afghanistan have begun playing down the importance of Osama bin Laden, in sharp contrast to their earlier confident predictions that he would be killed or captured by the end of this year. "Hell, we don't need him anymore. We've got everyone scared of 'terror' in general. You're all nice and compliant voters now. Bush for another term! Yeehaw!" they said.

Fuck it, I think I'll just read the entertainment and sports news for three years.

click

closeup of a measuring tape - black and white

click, download, photoshop, think about posting for a while, nearly post, not get around to it, forget for a few weeks, finally post. it's a simple process ;)

i've actually posted this to an online photo group and figured i may as well post it here as well :)

Also posted on lj:photographers and lj:bestshot.

Labels:

around the traps

well, fuck.

I've never before seen the result of an election and felt quite so alienated from my own country.

don't vote for Howard

belegdel: Please don't vote for Howard. Linked since I really couldn't say it any better.

Obviously it is purely my own opinion that Howard has to go, but it's also my blog so I'll say it anyway. So this is my way of saying please, don't vote for Howard/Liberals. Doing so condones their vile behaviour in their last term in office.

Don't buy into the scare campaigns, don't tolerate the lies, don't tolerate the steady erosion of democratic principles and governmental responsibility. If nothing else Australia needs a different government to restore some balance to the direction we - as a nation - are taking.

For those of us younger than about 50, we should take note that Howard doesn't speak to anyone other than tame media outlets with older audiences. While I don't give a toss if he goes on Rove Live, the point we should take note of is that Howard does not represent any segment of the population if he feels it won't win votes - which is not acceptable for a PM. Howard knows his appeal lies with the "grey vote" so fuck everyone else... because Howard isn't here to run the country the best way it can be run - he is here to try to get back in power at the next election. He is 100% political, no longer even pretending to have the nation's interests at heart. He may trot the line out, but he does it inconsistently and only where there is some political point to score.

So vote for someone else.

Update: detailed article against Liberal and for Labour - aussielj: Election 2004 article.

don't ask, don't tell

OK, so when you vote above the line for the senate; your preferences are distributed according to registered preference tickets. The AEC website is supposed to provide this information, but can you find it? So far I can't.

So I guess I'll vote below the line as usual. I just want to see the details of the preference deals...

around the traps

well, photos and boing boing stuff anyway.

news bits

x prize has been won

SpaceShipOne claims $US10m flight prize. 05/10/2004. ABC News Online:

The world's first privately funded manned spacecraft has soared through the blue fringe of Earth's atmosphere to the blackened frontiers of space for the second time within a week to win a $US10 million prize designed to spur commercial space travel.

...

Also present were aircraft designer Burt Rutan, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who financed the venture at a cost of between $US20 million and $US30 million, and British entrepreneur Richard Branson, who has licensed the SpaceShipOne design for a series of future commercial passenger flights.

This is very cool.

Update: more links - Slashdot | SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize, BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | SpaceShipOne rockets to success.

things which should be basic

Checkboxes vs. Radio Buttons (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox). It's annoying that this is still an issue - radio buttons and checkboxes have clear, obvious uses; yet people get it wrong all the time. I think this goes back to the underlying problem that many firms face: they get programmers to build interfaces, when they really need an interface designer or web developer. Some programmers get it right but many don't - it's not their primary role.

snip snip

Not that this will be interesting to many people, but after about nine years with long hair (ponytail) I went and got a haircut. It was time for a change.

Reactions at work today have been varied and amusing. Plenty of "Oh my god!" and "I don't believe it!"

Photos? Get real.

news bits

  • NEWS.com.au | Cabinet 'anti-Greenpeace fund' (October 4, 2004): The Federal Government allegedly offered a $36.4 million subsidy to an oil company if it promised to take environmental group Greenpeace to court. Unbelievable. Well, actually totally believable of this disgusting fucking government.
  • NEWS.com.au | PeopleSoft sacks chief (October 4, 2004): The dogfight between Oracle and PeopleSoft has taken a new turn, with PeopleSoft dumping chief executive Craig Conway and US regulators dropping their antitrust case. Looks like Oracle will eventually own PeopleSoft, most likely dissolving the company to remove the competition.
  • NEWS.com.au | PM committed to Telstra sale (October 4, 2004): THE federal government remained committed to selling off the remainder of Telstra subject to it meeting its service obligations to rural Australia, Prime Minister John Howard said.
  • Greens surge as Coalition holds its lead - Election 2004 - www.smh.com.au. The Coalition continues to poll strongly. It's funny how Australians prefer to put up with the arrogant, lying weasel they know; rather than trying an alternative. Remember this: Howard never does anything good until it is either politically beneficial or totally unavoidable. Don't be fooled by the Coalition trotting out all sorts of wonderful ideas - they have had eight years to implement them yet they havne't done so. They do not have our best interests at heart. Probably none of the parties do, really, but at least we can vote Howard out.