This could be the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen.  These boats are invisible to radar and humans due to stealth technology.  Take a look at Stealthboats.com — you’ll be amazed.

Scientists recently discovered an extrasolar planet in a triple-star system.  Previously thought impossible due to competing gravitational forces, the discovery challenges current planet formation theories.

Located in the triple-star system labeled HD 188753 some 149 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the newfound planet is a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter.  Observation indicates it speeds around its central star in a 3.5-day orbit.

Current planet formation theories indicate that giant planets, like the one discovered here, can only form in more stable environments and much further from their central star than this planet.  Applying our current understanding of planetary formation would indicate this planet is impossible because the stellar pair circling the central star likely sheared off much of the planet making material in the disk that would have existed around the primary star in its youth.  This material, a proto-planetary disk, is the basis of the construction materials needed for planets.  That being the case, there was no safe place for this world to have formed.

Yet there it is.

Maciej Konacki from the California Institute of Technology discovered the far-off world during his search of nearly 500 distant star systems for extrasolar planets.  When asked about the seeming disparity between this planet and current formation theories, Konacki said, “How that planet formed in such a complicated setting is very puzzling.  I believe there is yet much to be learned about how giant planets are formed.”

I don’t know if you read many blogs other than mine (if not, you poor soul…), but I have to point out a disturbingly hysterical war being waged in the blogosphere.  The Poor Man and the members of Sadly, No! are in the midst of, as Sadly, No!’s Brad put it, kitten kombat.

It all started when The Poor Man site had major issues and Sadly, No!’s Gavin decided to claim responsibility for the problems.  Gavin says they were caused by Sadly, No!’s wave of evil kitten attacks.

Andrew of The Poor Man then responded with his own kitten attack and challenged Sadly, No! with those all too familiar words: Bring it.

Gavin, taking the bait, decided to rib The Poor Man a bit more.

But that was not enough for the members of Sadly, No!, as Brad was already polishing his artillery shells for another shot at The Poor Man.  He immediately followed Gavin’s post with his own musical kitty montage.

The Poor Man, knowing Sadly, No! was just tryin’ to get all up in his kitty business, warned them that they were well out of their league and should tread carefully.

Brad of Sadly, No! felt compelled to respond.

Where will the carnage end?  What will be the outcome of this horrific digital warfare?  Will there be any kittens left once the dust settles and the final body count is complete?

I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I sure as hell am enjoying the process of finding out.  You just gotta love these guys.

Now this is the kind of thing that shows precisely what intrinsic value bloggers bring to the world.

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people on the internet can actually be.  It also never ceases to amaze me how gullible they are when they get their minds made up about their latest crusade.  Most often these people pursue their own agendas with little regard for facts or law.  My most recent spam experience is a perfect example.

I get, on average, about 10 spam messages per day.  Not overwhelming or cumbersome since my spam filters are quite accurate and I generally only see two or three messages per week that slip through.

I have, with increasing regularity over the last few weeks, been receiving spam about — and this is the entertaining part — possible spam from Microsoft.  To be more precise, the junk I’m getting is spoofed so that it appears to be coming from a domain called spamis.net (or .info or.biz or… well, you get the point) which, according to the spam message itself, stands for Strategic Partnership Against Microsoft Illegal Spam.

This is already entertaining.  Someone is violating the ICANN policy regarding bulk WHOIS access by third parties.  That policy specifically states that “registrar’s access agreement shall require the third party to agree not to use the data to allow, enable, or otherwise support any marketing activities, regardless of the medium used.  Such media include but are not limited to e-mail, telephone, facsimile, postal mail, SMS, and wireless alerts.”

In response to that requirement, my registrar clearly states in its WHOIS access policy that “you agree not to use this data to allow, enable, or otherwise make possible, dissemination or collection of this data, in part or in its entirety, for any purpose, such as the transmission of unsolicited advertising and solicitations of any kind, including spam.”

So, given those policies, what kind of idiot uses bulk WHOIS information to send spam about something that isn’t even happening?

Well, that idiot’s name is Robert Soloway.  He lives in Seattle, WA, and is known as one of the biggest spammers on the internet (he’s a member of the dirty dozen of top spammers).  Soloway’s Oregon-based company, Newport Internet Marketing Corporation, has sent millions of spam e-mails and has been the subject of numerous complaints and lawsuits by class action groups and Microsoft.  He lost his battle with Microsoft because he was spamming, so now he thinks this will be his revenge (see more here).

See why he’s spamming about Microsoft now, trying to make them a spammer simply by saying it in spam?

Soloway’s spam messages often contain get-rich-quick schemes selling spam software (ironic or just more internet lunacy?) and “fresh” e-mail addresses for spammers.  He like playing both sides of the fence, yes?

All of his hosted domains associated with the SPAMIS spam campaign have already been suspended by the hosting company, no doubt due to spam complaints and, one hopes, yet another criminal investigation.  Those domains include broadcastadvertise.net, spamis.net, spamis.info, spamis.com and spamis.biz.  I’m quite sure there are others, but those are the few I could find in a relatively short amount of time.

I can’t be certain, of course, whether Mr. Soloway is actually the person sending the spam since the headers are completely spoofed and full of intentionally invalid information.

I’ve been in this business long enough and have worked with internet e-mail equally long, so I know a scam when I see it — and that header is a complete scam.  Suffice it to say that the majority of the entries are forged so as to hide the real sender.  He’s obviously using zombie PCs on the internet to send his spam, another illegal activity for which I hope he gets caught.

Since Mr. Soloway doesn’t seem to want his information shared in the e-mail header, I wanted to help him out by sharing it here.  I can certainly return the favor by exposing this loser for the asshole he is.

Robert Soloway
PO Box 1259
Seattle, WA 98111
US
(206) 223-1271
(206) 223-1270

It’s safe to assume he may not be using that address anymore since, as one of the world’s leading spammers, he’s quite adept at avoiding digital footprints and trackability.  Still, one can hope…

As for some of his e-mail addresses, I’m providing them here as “mailto” links so they’ll be picked up by spam robots, crawlers and spiders — all looking for fresh addresses.  What’s good for the goose and all, right?

broadcastadvertise@address.com
contact@broadcastadvertise.net
contact@spamis.net
contact@spamis.com
contact@spamis.info (useless; the domain is unregistered)

Since these domains have been suspended already, it’s safe to assume that he’s not going to get any spam at those addresses.  It’s also safe to assume, however, that he can’t use those addresses ever again, even if the domains become live in the future, since they’ll be a permanent part of the global spam catalog of victim e-mail addresses.

My mom sent these to me.  I’d seen some of them, but this compilation includes several that are new to me.

Anyone feeling Photoshopped?

Read the rest of this entry »

Today was Grendel's annual visit to the vet for his vaccinations and physical.  He was a well-behaved gentleman for the doctor.  She was thrilled that he has continued to lose weight since his last visit.  The change of asthma medication has helped increase his energy levels while decreasing his exaggerated appetite for food and water (a common side effect of the steroid treatment).  She also made special mention of his breathing.  Visits to the vet normally exasperate asthma because of stress, but, in Grendel's case, he was breathing normally and sounded fine.

James Doohan (March 3, 1920 - July 20, 2005)

Thank you for all of the fond memories.

Rick and I went to see War of the Worlds recently.  Having thoroughly enjoyed the book and the 1953 movie version (entitled The War of the Worlds), and obviously having been drawn in by the previews which showed some impressive special effects, we scampered to the local theater early one afternoon to catch a matinée.

Yes, we actually went despite Tom Cruise’s recent insanity and attempts to push on the masses his own limited and extremely dangerous views on mental health.  Actors should learn that their fame in no way makes them an expert, especially considering their career is based on deception (acting is, by definition, lying and pretending to be someone you aren’t — you know, like a mental health expert).  Anyway…

This movie was weak at best.  The special effects are cool but not impressive (what you see in the previews is the extent of their ability to impress; the rest is simply common).  There are flaws galore with this interpretation of the original book The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.  There are many flaws with the movie itself and the story it tries to tell (why, if we see Boston has already been laid waste by the aliens, do we see the family completely and perfectly coifed and unsoiled at the end of the movie — in a neighborhood and house completely untouched by the devastation around them?).  And what the hell was Tim Robbins’ character about other than a messy conglomeration of three separate characters from the book who, sloppily put together in this interpretation, present as a completely incoherent muddle?

There are no significant battles to be seen despite inferences in the film that America’s military has been destroyed easily (don’t tell me about it in a movie like this; show me something… please!).  There are no significant turns in the story to warrant this retelling (no surprises and a sloppy interpretation of Wells’ original don’t mean you should make a movie).  Spielberg does a terrible job of movie making (surprising, I know).  Certain aspects of the story, as retold here, make absolutely no sense (if an alien species was capable of putting these enormous machines into the planet at least a million years ago, one could — and should — safely assume they would have considered the microbiological impact of their presence; if an alien species put the attack machines in the ground a million or so years ago, wouldn’t their technology have advanced in the interim and wouldn’t their attack be carried out from a safe distance — from orbit, for instance?).  It’s one thing to assume, as Wells did, that aliens wouldn’t know about viruses and bacteria if they’d never been to our planet and didn’t have the same kind of threats on their home world, but Spielberg makes it clear they were here a long time ago — and that means they did know about our microbiological threats and would — should— have prepared for it.

As with all movies, there’s a degree of assumed suspension of disbelief.  In this case, that gets thrown out the window because of the many flaws in the story.

Despite his personal mayhem of late, I am impressed with Tom Cruise’s performance.  His character is understated and realistic.  There’s no overstated, altruistic heroism.  There’s no “saving the day” at the last minute with some completely ludicrous maneuver.  I shudder to think, given his recent real-world idiocy, that he’s the high point of this movie — but them’s the facts, I’m afraid.

This movie is definitely worth seeing on the big screen so long as you don’t mind leaving with the clear knowledge that you’ve just wasted the money you spent.

After maligning Cingular for the absolutely horrid service I was getting following their acquisition of AT&T Wireless, I decided the only way to get around the growing problems with my service was to switch to a real Cingular plan — and that meant buying a new phone.  Ah, but what to get?  I was flummoxed by all the choices.

Not!  I knew precisely what I wanted — the new Motorola RAZR V3.

You know me well enough by now to realize I'm a sucker for the latest and greatest toys, and that's clearer in no greater way than in the technology I use (that's my line of work; would you expect anything less of me?).

I'd seen the commercials and had even visited my neighborhood Cingular store on one occasion to manhandle (I love that word) the phone so that I could evaluate it's appropriateness for moi.  As you can no doubt already guess, it seemed perfectly appropriate for me.

A few weeks ago I finally concluded that additional lack of action on my rapidly declining cellular service would indeed paint me as the lazy bum I am, eager only to continue complaining about Cingular without taking action to solve the problem they themselves deny exists and which they themselves created.  I therefore carried my tired little ass up to the local Cingular five-and-dime and switched to a purely Cingular plan, native to their network and not AT&T's now defunct and much ignored infrastructure, and purchased the silver RAZR.

Allow me to say that this is a great phone, at least for me.  It's small, it's absolutely beautiful and very edgy (my Anglophile self wishes to say it's quite smart), it has all the features I need, and it works on Cingular's native network rather than the bastardized remains of AT&T's network (that thing Cingular promised not to degrade, a memo apparently not shared with those who actually maintain the network — if there is any maintenance taking place, that is).

Amazingly — can you see the sarcasm dripping? — it works in my home.  That in and of itself is a feat of technological wizardry which I believed impossible given Cingular's claims that there was in fact no AT&T network relegation or degradation.

I have excellent network coverage in all the places I frequent (like where I live), I have a sleek little phone that everyone talks about and wants to fondle when they see it (often prompting me to slip it in my front pocket after waving it around madly in front of the hotties), and my cell phone woes are — as of this writing, anyway — a thing of the past.  I even noticed that, when I paid my last bill in the same manner I've been paying them for many years (electronically through my bank), it didn't take Cingular 28 days to process the payment, a problem I'd been having with them since they acquired AT&T and which, oddly enough, they constantly blamed on me as it meant my payments were often late.

So long as I am trouble-free with this phone and plan, I believe I may actually stay with Cingular — for now.

No, I didn't go buy a new car — yet.  I'm quite happy with my 2001 Lexus IS 300.  It is, after all, completely paid for and in perfect running condition (it's a Lexus! what do you expect?).  Hell, it doesn't even have 50,000 miles on it yet and I've had it since September 2000 (I lived 5 minutes from work for several years).

I won't be getting rid of that car in the near future, but I will be getting rid of it eventually.  Since I purchased it when the IS was in its first year model, I've since learned that's not always a good idea.  It's not that the car had problems in its first year; it's just that they added all the cool extras to it in the second year.  Well, I won't make that mistake again.

When I do buy a new one, what will I get?

Why, another Lexus IS, except this time it'll be the new Lexus IS 350.  Just take a look at those photos and read the review.  You can also take a look at the Lexus site where they've now posted their 2006 IS preview page.

With a 3.5-liter V6 engine providing 306 horsepower, it'll be a lot of fun.  That's zero-to-60 in less than six seconds.  Yea, baby!

Come to Daddy…