Category Archives: Tech

Switched back to using Flock as my browser in Windows

Last time I checked out Flock, it was cool but it crashed pretty often. I switched back to Firefox, which crashes pretty often too. I just upgraded Flock to the latest version and I like it. With one exception; in the blog editor’s WYSIWYG mode, when you pop up the insert link dialog box, you can’t copy/cut-and-paste there, what gives?? That dialog box doesn’t look native, maybe it’s in Java??

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Now I don’t feel so bad…

Looks like the same script kiddie attacked Apple Korean’s site as well…

Apple’s Korean online store has been defaced by a hacker.The attack, carried out by someone working under the name ‘Dinam’, who claimed in his post to be Turkish, was brought to the attention of silicon.com last Thursday.

Apple online store hacked – WebWatch – Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com

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server got hacked

It was bad, still working on getting stuff back up. I am pretty sure it got in via the XML-RPC exploit in older installation of WordPress. so if you’re running WordPress on my server, please go upgrade it to the latest one if you want xmlrpc.php, I have removed that file from all installation except mine. I think WP from 1.5 on is safe.

If you found any useful info on details on this “Hacked by Metlak” or “Turkish Hack” attack, please post comments to this thread. I’ve only opened up this one blog, hopefully I am safe, we’ll see…

SGTL posts Q1 loss of $24.7m

Looks like Apple is not replacing PortaPlayer’s chips with SigmaTel’s in the Nanos afterall… So best guess is either Samsung or Broadcom. Samsung, they can offer a sweet bundle deal with their NAND flash. Broadcom already has a video codec chip in the video pods, and if they’re in the Nanos, we’ll be closer to pods with WiFi capabilities. Directly streaming from pods to Airport Express would definitely be cool.

SigmaTel slumps 19% after swinging to a loss – MarketWatch

SigmaTel Inc. shares plummeted as much as 19% Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for the audio chipmaker after it swung to a first-quarter loss and gave a second-quarter forecast that was worse that analysts’ estimates.

HTML signatures for Mail.app

Apple’s Mail.app only allows rich-text signatures, if you want an image in your signature, you could copy and paste it into the signature editor. But if you want links and other HTML features, you are out of luck. With the help of Spotlight, I quickly found the directory in which Mail.app stores the signatures, and they are in Web Archive format. So I opened up VIM in a terminal, hacked up some HTML, opened that file in Safari, do a Save As to Web Archive. Then I replaced the file in ~/Library/Mail/Signatures, it worked! 😀

Well, I guess I must warn that there are quite a few HTML emails haters out there, so don’t go crazy with the HTML signatures, or emails, or myspace profiles, or xanga pages. Oh man, don’t get me started on how lame most xanga pages are; but one quick advice: use CSS – don’t force text colors with HTML, if your hardcoded text in white in your posts, they look okay with “cute” dark backgrounds, but they become invisible in RSS readers…

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Information leak at McCombs?

Got this email, not sure why, and I’m not sure if it’s for real, it was PGP-signed but I didn’t verify… They used a rather ancient version of PGP, GnuPG does support it, but I don’t care enough to add their key and verify…

maybe I requested some information for their MBA program and got on their mailing list… This isn’t the first time UT leaked student information…

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–

From: President William Powers Jr.
Subject: McCombs School of Business security breach
Date: April 25, 2006

A serious breach of security has been discovered in the primary
administrative information system at the McCombs School of Business at
The University of Texas at Austin. This system contains 197,000
individual records, and many but not all, contain Social Security
numbers. Among those in the system are Business School alumni, students
(including students who have taken a few courses or one course at
McCombs), admissions applicants, present and former faculty and staff,
and corporate recruiters. I write to inform you that your record is
contained in the breached McCombs system.

At least 106,000 individual records containing names and Social Security
numbers were accessed (downloaded) by the intruder. If you are a current
McCombs faculty or staff member, initial analysis indicates you are
included in this number. If you are a current McCombs student or
alumnus, there is a very high probability you are included. We are less
certain about the risk to others affiliated with McCombs.

Rather than wait for additional analysis to determine the extent of your
risk, we advise you today to take precautions immediately to protect
your credit. The University strongly recommends that you place a “fraud
alert” on your file with the three major credit bureaus. Instructions
for placing the no-charge fraud alerts, and other information about the
security breach can be found on the special Web site,

http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/datatheft

You will be receiving additional communication from the University that
clarifies which, if any, information about you was obtained by the
intruder. Please do not wait for our follow-up communication to take
action.

If you have questions or concerns not covered in the above Web site,
please contact the University via email to datatheft@mccombs.utexas.edu
or by calling 475-9020 (local Austin number) or 866-657-9400
(toll-free). Our help desk is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through
Friday.

Please know that the University is committed to doing everything it can
to ensure the security of any personal information received from you,
and to working vigorously with law enforcement authorities to identify
and prosecute those responsible for this intrusion.

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
Version: 2.6.2

iQCVAwUBRE43ApVDMk6jFuzBAQFAdgP/dvTT5iIT1OiDCQumXzy/CrS+Q21mJEJi
azOuRt0zjABzSeF61vtdPFE0TfAvzm+hyd4ZXCPbLttE/EuMSdUiigFcXyCt2ozK
Pb+xK+jDx/jbk5tSbIRVEoZcpQRVdvlZivFJNkWg/ZQyg4KXRzBpXjIsmn3XmlwL
l6FeZCyEMoU=
=cUGK
—–END PGP SIGNATURE—–

To determine the authenticity of this message, please see
<http://www.utexas.edu/computer/security/keys.html>.

Chinese names | Farewell the red soldiers | Economist.com

This is messed up. The computer systems used by the government have problems dealing with rare Chinese characters. Instead of fixing the software, they are trying to ban “problematic” Chinese characters in names. Seems a bit backward to me, as I am sure there are millions more “problematic” names than the number of software that have to be upgraded or replaced. Actually, only the input methods and fonts need to be upgraded.

Chinese names | Farewell the red soldiers | Economist.com (subscription required):

The problem is that commonly used software for inputting Chinese characters, including that used by police departments responsible for issuing identity cards (which every Chinese must carry), cannot handle very rare characters. In China, the usual way of writing a character on a computer is to enter its pronunciation using Roman letters, then choose from a list of possible options (most characters have many homonyms). A rare character might not show up on the list.

For the police all this has become a particular problem with the introduction in 2004 of new identity cards with embedded microchips. Rather than getting better software, a senior police official has announced that the answer is to ban problematic characters.