Brain Enema of a Savage Mind

Damn, I Got Pwn’d!

It appears I fell victim to an SQL injection hack on this website.  From the looks of it, it either happened late last night or early this morning.  I actually only caught it as quick as I did because my page was loading so slowly I checked to see what the hang up was and found it was attempting to connect to some weird ass site.  Looking that site up online I found that many WordPress sites hosted by my provided had fallen victim.  An improperly patched version of SQL perhaps?  They have a notice on their site about it, though they don’t go in to much detail, though it’s pretty obvious it was something on their end.  Fortunately they gave very good instructions on how to quickly remove the attack.  Then I went through the tedious nature of changing every password associated with my webhost and this blog.  Nothing like 16 character completely random generated passwords.  Password managers are a wonderful thing.

All seems to be right.  Looking through this page and back posts reveal the malicious site in question is no longer linked anywhere.  Anyone can screw up, but if it happens again I might be looking about for a new web host.  For now, however, it seems no harm, no foul.

Never a Dull Moment When they Remodel Your House.

I’ve always known that whoever did the additions to this house in the 80′s had no clue what they were doing.  I don’t know whether they were some sort of incompetent contractor, or some do it yourself yahoo who was reaching way too far with their ability.  I’ve cursed their unknown names like some religious mantra, almost daily since I moved in to this place.  While most of my best cursing is reserved for anything involving the kitchen, the living room hasn’t escaped my fury either.

My favorite example is when we went to replace the rather ugly and weather worn front door.  We bought a brand spanking new door from Home Depot.  Nice, clean looking, great window in the middle, and highly energy efficient.  We watched videos on replacing your own door and had some good printed material.  We’re both fairly handy and felt that the job was well within our means.  When we tore out the old door we discovered many things.  The first was they used no insulation in the walls at all.  The second, and more damning, was the fact that the door frame was cut at an angle.  We always thought warping caused our door to stick, but no, it was because it was put in at a bit of an angle.  Lots of sanding and pounding with a chisel later we had a frame that was much closer to resembling something straight.  A few dozen shims later and we had a door that looked good and opened and closed with ease.

All of this brings us today and the newest discovery of previous owner ass-hattery.  While stripping the siding above our deck one of the works idly kicked at a board on the outside wall of the house.  Next thing we knew our deck partially collapsed.  Yes, while on one side of the deck they dug posts, poured concrete, and all that jazz, on the side attached to the house they attached it to the masonry with wood lags.  And went less than a 1/4″ in to the masonry.  Seriously, a tiny bolt meant to hold some wood together was the only thing keeping our porch vaguely attached to the house.  That it never collapsed before this is a bit of a miracle.  Fortunately no one was hurt, and now it’ll get attached properly.

We knew there would be something that would got beyond the initial estimate.  There pretty much always is.  This certainly wasn’t what we had been expecting it to be.  With fingers crossed we hope this is the last deviation from the master plan of home repair, but you just never know.  Stay tuned.

Oh Comcast, you so silly!

Provide horrible customer service?  Constantly disconnecting users from the internet?  Charging highly obscene unadvertised penalties for users using too much data?  Throttling back network connections because your users dare actually use their available bandwidth?  All of this giving you a horrible corporate image that day after day takes more hits in the media?  If so, then there is only one way to make it all better, rebrand yourself!  Why bother actually addressing consumer problems and improving your network capability when you can spend all that money on changing your name!  IN ALL CAPS!  XFINITY!

This is the reason that the US is lagging behind the rest of the modern world in home network infrastructure.  The so-called “gate keepers” of the internet have no real desire nor incentive to fix the ever growing list of network problems.  Because there is a severe lack of provider options in this country, and little to no regulation, companies use rebranding tactics in an attempt to dazzle people in to forgetting their internet sucks.

Nice try, but your 90′s edgy naming attitude ain’t going to cut it Com… er XFINITY.

Princess? Really?

Recently there was a massive password breach at the social media provider RockYou.  32 million passwords were exposed.  Of course the most alarming part of this is that when the passwords were analyzed the following were the top ten most frequent passwords out a dataset of 32 million passwords (really, just can’t emphasize that size enough):

123456
12345
123456789
Password
iloveyou
princess
rockyou
1234567
12345678
abc123

These passwords illustrate one of the fundamental security problems faced today.  While there are exploits in code to be found, sometimes the best way to break in to a place is to just waltz in through the front door.  Users often complain that remembering passwords is too difficult, and like to keep things as simple as possible.  It’s another example of people not taking their data seriously.  You don’t fully appreciate what your data is worth until someone you don’t want to have access to it manages to get a hold of it.

People need to get in to the habit of practicing better password security.  Even if you have a difficult password with letters, numbers, and special characters writing it down on a Post-It note next to your computer is the same as buying a fancy high tech lock for your front door but then leaving the key in it.  There are great password managers out there that encrypt your passwords with a single password.

But seriously, princess?

I’ve Got a Sudden Craving for a Pepsi

When it comes down to the Cola wars I was always in the Coke camp.  Pepsi just has the kind of sweetness to it that hits my palette the wrong way.  However I’ve always loved Wild Cherry Pepsi and I’m of course a Mountain Dew fanatic.  Why is any of this relevant?  Well after seeing this website I got the strongest craving for anything made by Pepsi.

I am sick and tired of groups that try to regulate morality.  It’s right up there with those people who want to tax fattening foods.  If I want to eat unhealthy that’s my own choice, not something the government needs to put their sticky little mitts all over.  The same goes for morality – and of course the top of that subject has always been homosexuality.  Apparently the American Family Association is upping the ante in intolerance and bigotry by calling for a boycott of all Pepsi products.  The reason for this?  Pepsi refuses to “remain neutral in the culture war”.  Culture war?  Really?  I didn’t realize the gays and straights had taken up arms to promote their agendas.  Because we know if there’s a gay in your neighborhood they are going to do everything possible to  subvert your heterosexuality.  Yes, these people are part of the nutbag coalition that is fracturing this country by polarizing political camps and creating the us versus them mentality.  No compromise.  Winner take all.

My favorite moment from their lunacy was this gem:

PepsiCo, while promoting the homosexual agenda, refuses to give one penny to help those trapped in this destructive and unhealthy lifestyle.

Personally i’ve always felt the destructive and unhealthy lifestyle is one where we preach hate and intolerance.  If you feel strongly about homosexuality that is certainly your right.  But to then try and force your will upon other people is just plain wrong.  We can disagree about things, but to believe in the absolute truth and rightness of your position, that there is no middle ground, well look over to the Middle East for a great example of where that will get you.  Centuries of intolerance have led to bloodshed and wholesale slaughter.  I’d like to think the average person of the 21st century is capable of raising themselves above such petty behavior.

So I say to everyone who reads this, when you’re finished, go out and buy a Pepsi.