Sadly, Haloscan, the commenting application Farkleberries has used for over eight years, will be shutting down operations in a few weeks. I received this notification in my inbox this morning:

Haloscan is being shut down on: Feb 11, 2010
The Haloscan hardware and software is physically failing and we have no choice but to discontinue the service. Two Options: Switch to Echo or Export your comments FREE.
Although we can't rescue Haloscan, we are trying our best to limit the negative impact on users. To do this, we have worked hard to provide 2 options for Haloscan sites.

For now, I'm exporting all comments for possible future use rather than switching to the replacement service, Echo, but I wanted readers to know that their past comments will likely disappear (at least for a time) from Farkleberries and my other Haloscan-supported sites as of 2/11/10. If you're a fellow Haloscan user, now's the time to export and backup.

Haloscan helpfully provides a link to the EchoWiki FAQ.

Labels: computers, news, soapbox

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  Another from the "Not From The Onion But Shoulda Been" files: the FBI just announced the results of a sting operation against malicious hackers who hijacked millions of innocent machines, turning them into spam-spewing zombies. It's called - wait for it:

OPERATION BOT ROAST.

Yes, Bot Roast. They must have comedy writers moonlighting over at the Eff Bee Eye. I can imagine some of the hilarious phone calls that must occurred behind the scenes.

Deep Throat: "...Errm, *cough cough* I'm calling regarding Operation Bot Roast."
Agent: "Did you just say 'Operation Pot Roast'?"
Deep Throat: "No, I said Operation Bot Roast."
Agent: "Marijuana dealers, you say?"
Deep Throat: "No, we're going after computer hackers."
Agent: "The hackers are smoking pot?"
Deep Throat: "No."
Agent: "They're selling pot?"
Deep Throat: "No. I said Operation. Bot. Roast. We're going after the hackers and their spambots."
Agent: "I could use a pot of SPAM right about now."
Deep Throat: "Listen, you idiot, there's NO FOOD involved in Operation BOT ROAST."
Agent: "Well, no wonder they're so hungry!"
{click}

However, the name itself isn't original - the term "bot roast" appears on a gamers' forum from 2006. I first heard about this on NPR this morning, and I laughed all the way to the coffeepot.

Yup...I'm an easy laugh today.

More at the Washington Post, ZDNet, and DarkReading.

FTC: "Botnets and Hackers and Spam - Oh, My!"

Labels: computers, crime, humor, law

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  Saw this little hack on ConsumerIST [via Instructables - a great site, by the way] and I must try it - since I use a USB WiFi adapter and I have a couple of Chinese brass dumpling strainers kicking around. Instead of catching ravioli and wontons, it will catch delicious Interweb rays. This WiFi signal booster is kind of like a cantenna without the can!

I know there was some brouhaha about a year ago where a police officer was quoted as saying cantennas are "illegal to possess," but I'm not sure if that's actually true. Also, you're probably fine since it's technically not a "can," so to speak.* Unless you're wardriving or sticking one out your apartment window to steal your neighbor's WiFi, you can always disassemble it quickly and claim you've taken up Chinese cooking. That's something you can't do easily with a Pringles™ can on a stick, that crack pipe of WiFi thievery.

* I think it would be hilarious (though foolhardy) to stick the electrified strainer out your sunroof seeking signalz.

Labels: computers

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  Just in case you wondered how well those "futuristic" television ads from years ago come across today.

Though the "Wouldn't You Rather Be At Home?" campaign was poorly received compared to Apple's "1984" ad (recently revived when an erstwhile Obama fan remixed it into an anti-Hilary Clinton ad), I prefer it to the latter.

Speaking of mood, where did Packard-Bell go wrong? While both spots used a monochrome dystopia to depict the "problem," "1984" had an obvious hero in the hammer-tossing runner who frees the proles by smashing the "Big Brother" screen. In Packard Bell's ad, the weary masses are never seen transcending their subjection. When the candy-colored payoff scene finally appears, Packard Bell's computerized "smart home" is as uninhabited as the post-apocalyptic house in Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains."

By the way, a fascinating, unrelentingly bleak Russian animated short film, "Будет ласковый дождь" (9:15) inspired by the Bradbury short story, is available on Google Video. Caveat: it's considerably more violent and graphic than Bradbury's version. In October of 1996, a number of (pre Internet-boom) librarian listserv members expressed outrage at the ads, but a fellow user offered this forward-looking perspective:

Of ~50 camera shots in the ad depicting the urban hell, about 10 are set in the nightmare library. Other scenes contributing to the urban hell include a cobwebby bank, people migrating through urban wasteland, and lots of standing in line. It uses image ideas from the depression era photography (breadlines and sad tired faces) and film ideas (Bladerunner's urban hell, Wizard of Oz black and white blooming into color) and book ideas (1984, anyone?) and reminds me of the influential Apple Computer advertisement
that ran during the Olympics years ago.

Yes, libraries are still around 11 years later...but where is Packard Bell? Yes, I did post about this ad a couple of years ago, before YouTube.

Labels: computers, video

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  This is a fascinating read: the University of Chicago Law School's Judge Richard A. Posner, of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, author of Not a Suicide Pact, and a blogger in his own right as half of the Becker-Posner Blog, took part in an unusual live online interview in Creative Commons' Kula Island - in the virtual metaverse of Second Life. Judge Posner provides provocative answers to questions on topics like intellectual property, constitutional law and civil liberties in the War on Terror, parody, satire, fair use and fan-fiction. Here's a taste (excerpt courtesy of nwn.blogs.com):

H[amlet] A[u]: Finally from me, sir, a question related to where we are now. The Internet is already an essential recruiting, communication, and logistical tool for Al Qaeda and its ideological adherents, so it seems inevitable to me that terrorists will be attracted to Second Life. For example, to "dry run" attacks in simulated environments they custom-build, to launder money through Linden Dollars, and most advantageous for them, to communicate anonymously as avatars in a way that would be very difficult for government officials to track. For all we know, Al Qaeda may already be in Second Life, doing those very things right now.

Obviously it's a concern, but what should be the legal response? A court warrant so the Feds can monitor chat dialog in Second Life? A law that requires Linden Lab to cull their database for suspect conversations and activity? Suggest some legal principles, sir, for Constitutionally permissible counter-terrorism in the metaverse.

J[udge] R[ichard] P[osner]: There is I believe no legal impediment to an FBI special agent enrolling in Second Life under an avatar that would not identify him as an agent. The general rule is that if a building or other area is open to the public, anyone can enter if he adheres to the rules of the owner, but the owner cannot bar an investigator who does not resort to coercion or other distinctive police methods of investigation.

But in response to your broader question, the Internet offers opportunities both for terrorists and counterterrorism. Open source intelligence (that is, intelligence gleaned from public sources such as the Web) is an increasingly important form of intelligence used by the CIA and other government agencies. So it's an arms race between the opposing forces, both seeking maximum advantage from the digital revolution.

Later, during a virtual autograph signing...

Cindy Heying, an avatar in the Pamela Anderson mode, approaches the Judge to have her autograph signed.
Cindy Heying [grinning]: Hello. Thank you!
JRP: Hi... Watch out, my wife is watching.
Suddenly, another griefer attack is unleashed on the colisieum.
Neptune Rebel: Fireball!
Chancery Jae: Oh no, it's Al Qaeda again.
Undaunted, Judge Posner continues autographing books.
Quee Taiyang [having her book signed]: Thank you your honor!
JRP: My pleasure. But where's the raccoon? Come back here, raccoon. That's an order.
Kear Nevzerov: Yes, sir?
JRP: Hi. I have a Maine Coon cat--half raccoon. Her name is Dinah. She was in the New Yorker.
KN: It's what they gave me when I signed up yesterday. Would like to lose the tail.
JRP: Your tail is great.

Good stuff. Read the whole thing at Wagner James Au's New World Notes.

Labels: chicago, computers, law, security

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