csquared.org

I was recently IM'd from a buddy of mine via Yahoo! Instant Messenger. He signed in, sent me a link to a GeoCities page, and immediately signed off. As our conversations usually center around beer drinking and work, I was immediately suspicious. After navigating to the link, I was prompted to enter my Yahoo! username and password. Upon closer inspection, the form would email the username and password to [havinfunfun@gmail.com|mailto:havinfunfun@gmail.com]. Further poking around found that other geocities pages with similar urls had the same type of attack. I emailed Yahoo!, The Google Team, and the hosted script provider and provied them details about this dickhead's attack. So, here's a bone to all you spammers out there: Feel free to spam the shit out of [havinfunfun@gmail.com|mailto:havinfunfun@gmail.com].

My new PC:

Why you can't get a "straight" WinXP bundle, I don't know...

Need to get a dedicated video card, too.

My latest cover design:

Out of print for about 25 years, this is the book that got me hooked on Leo's work. You can buy it from Great Authors Online.

On several sites I administer, I've had to deal with comment spam. Not just one or two comments, but hundreds. While Jeremy Andrew's Drupal [spam module|http://www.kerneltrap.org/jeremy/drupal/spam/] helps, I've taken the additional step of denying access to these shitheads. Here's how to do the same. # If you haven't already, install Jeremy Andrew's Drupal [spam module|http://www.kerneltrap.org/jeremy/drupal/spam/]\\\\ # After you've been hit, execute the following query: \\{{{\\select distinct hostname from spam_log where entry like '%insert action%'}}}\\ # Select all of the hostnames, then edit your .htaccess file thusly: \\{{{\\\\deny from [hostname from query above]\\\\}}}\\

I don't know if I have enough power to force mate...

I'm a member of Electronic Arts' online gaming community, Club Pogo. Generally speaking, it's a nice place to kill some time.

I've been on a chess kick lately, playing dozens of games over the past couple of weeks. So, I head over to chess this morning, and "sit down" at a table. My opponent started a rated game, but refused to move because of the fact I'm a Club Pogo member.

Unfortunately, if I were to leave, it would count as a loss and my "Unfinished Rated Games" tally would go up. By the same token, it would count as a win for this goof-ball.

Now, that would normally not be a big deal -- it's just a game, right? Well, normally, I'd agree, but the whole principle of it annoys the hell out of me.

Completely apropos of nothing, I noticed I've been neglecting the site since... November of last year. I really need to post more often.

[Google Base|http://base.google.com] allows a content provider to categorize content for Google users. Gonna have to check this out.

The cover designs I did for [Lord Conrad's Crusade|I designed another book cover...] and [The Empire of Texas|My Third Book Cover] are now available for purchase on [Great Authors Online], [Leo Frankowski's Book Store], [Booksurge.com], and [Amazon.com]. Now, if we can only get more traffic to [Great Authors Online]...

I just finished the final cover for Rodger Olsen's The Empire of Texas.

The full image is a 1.5MB jpg, so scaled down and optimzed for your viewing enjoyment, here it is:

I listen to music at work. A lot. With my handy-dandy 20GB Rio Karma, I can drown out my cube neighbors with the soothing sounds of Project Pitchfork, Sisters of Mercy, and Funker Vogt. When I heard about [Yahoo! Music], I thought this would be an ideal way to fill up my Rio on the cheap. They had stuff I purchased on __vinyl__ for God's sake! Since the Rio supported my Napster DRM downloads, I ass-u-me'd that it would work for Yahoo! Music as well. Au contraire, mon frere. The DRM that Yahoo! uses is exceptionally limited. You can't burn, sync, or otherwise manipulate your downloads. I don't have a problem with ''renting'' music, but dammit, I shouldn't be forced to shell out a couple of hundred bucks to purchase a new audio jukebox that supports it. My poor wife is equally hosed. Without jumping through hoops, we can't burn a CD with the ~~crap~~ country and pop goodness she prefers. In the event you __do__ want to do these things, you need to shell out an additional $0.79 per track. I fully appreciate the problems file swapping poses to the music industry, but until there's a better way to allow honest individuals to listen to music however, whenever, and wherever they want, I'll pass.