Regular domains beat smut sites at hosting malware

Who knew? I have long joked with people whose PC's get infected by malware to stop browsing pr0n with Windows and/or IE. Apparently, I shouldn't have been so quick to blame the skin trade.

In my own personal experience, there has only been one time recently that malware tried to get me to install it via the browser. There was a time when I had IE 7 open with just one tab with Facebook loaded. It was one of the now infamous "Your PC may be infected by a virus..." pop ups. It was likely through a cross script injection, which is possible through the many many bugs in the FB code (reason #2 of many to be glad I deleted the damn account). So now, when friends complain that their PC's have gotten p0wned I'm going to recommend a more secure browser, not different sites ;)

Yet another Facebook privacy breach

In other news, the sky is blue. This here is why I deleted the stupid FB account.

"According to the report, many Facebook apps have transmitted identifiable details about individual users to around 25 companies, in effect breaking the terms laid down by the Mark Zuckerberg-run website."

Oh, and by the way, they also steal your friends' phone numbers via Contact Sync.

"...what Facebook WILL DO, with neither your knowledge or consent, is import ALL the names and phone numbers FROM your phone’s address book and upload them to your Facebook Phonebook app (Click HERE to see your Facebook Phonebook) on Facebook.com, thus storing your private contact numbers on Facebook‘s servers. Once your phone is synced , Facebook will attempt to match the newly uploaded phone numbers to users that have listed the same phone number on their Facebook profile, wether you are friends with them or not. If Facebook cannot make a match, it will create a new contact entry in your Facebook Phonebook using the contact details imported from your phone, and add a link to invite them to join Facebook. And guess what? There is no way to delete the names and numbers Facebook imports from your phone’s address book."

Rest in peace, Mandelbrot

The father of fractal mathmatics has passed the wheel. In his memory, I'm running a fractal screensaver. I thought it was appropriate.

I cried a little at this beautiful dream of tech support

Ganked from Shadowfirebird

HTC Desire - I desire

This is innovative. Want. That is all.

Yep, this has happened to me, multiple times.

The one time I most fondly remember being doubted because I was a woman was on the Boston trains. At the time I was taking them to and from work every workday. Some guy riding with me to some event, who rarely took the trains, argued with me about how many stops it was to our stop. I named off the stops from memory & he argued with me. I got great pleasure in reading the stops that were helpfully printed on the map in the car to him.

This wasn't a case where a white male was immediately believed but I, as a woman, was not. It does highlight the underlying issue, tho, that if you're not a white male, you are less likely to be automatically believed.

My battle with the Lung Crud

There's this Lung Crud that's gone around the office, my friends, and even migrated to Jolly Olde England. Usually, I'm fairly quick to heal, so I've gotten somewhat impatient, fighting this thing off for a week. On Thursday I started hacking up stuff (again), so I did the only rational thing you can do in that circumstance.

I went roller-skating. Some of the music they played in the rink hearkens back to my original roller-skating days, which was nicely nostalgic. One of these was "Funky Town", which was my favorite song the year it came out. I'll leave you to do the math.

Playing things on the safe side, I also picked up some of the only cough medicine that really works for me the next day. Blessed be Jameson's Irish Medicine.