The Floodwaters of Spam continue to rise

According to antivirus maker Symantec, 87 percent of e-mail traffic in the past year was spam, compared to just under 70 percent in 2008. More than 40 trillion spam messages were sent according to Symantec, which monitors about a third of the world's e-mail traffic. That's about 5,000 spam messages for every person on the planet.

More of that spam is harboring malicious software, or "malware," -- 2 percent of spam contained malware, a 900 percent increase from the previous year.

So much for the Can-Spam act... probably one of the most toothless pieces of legislation ever enacted by our mealy-mouthed "representatives". Notice those quote marks, folks. They sure as shootin' don't represent me.

If I look at the hqiz that fills up my Gmail spam folder, it pretty much follows Symantec's most recent spam report categorization:



Fortunately, Comcast (my home email provider) has fairly robust internal spam filters, so I don't see most of these. What gets through are exclusively one type of spam, where the body of the message contains nothing but an image with a link - for some reason Comcast can't seem to handle these yet. The bulk of what comes through are work-at-home scams, degree scams, açai berry scams, and the occasional Russian pharma piece.

87% of all email is spam, much of it criminal in nature, with virtually no solutions in sight. Wow... whoever could come up with a comprehensive solution to that problem would deserve the global medal of honor.

Writer's Block: Holiday blues

[Error: unknown template qotd]
A divorce puts an entirely different slant on the holidays - it's neither good nor bad, it's just different. I still love the Christmas season, perhaps more than I did as a child, as I'm focused outward on reconnecting with people and the pleasures of sending cards and making gifts, and the joy of each day trumps the "Christmas Morning" rush that we all waited for as kids. For me it's definitely true - it's more fun to give than to recieve.

Currywurst Redux!

Oh.
Mein.
Lieber.
Schreck.


Groan BELCH Groan

You know, I've spent a lot of time in Germany and Austria and Switzerland. I've never been to Berlin, so I can't tell you what they do there.

But this much I can tell you: If their Currywurst is half as good as what I fixed myself tonight, they could make a respectable cottage industry out of selling this stuff on the street...



"HERR, nun läßt du deinen Diener in Frieden fahren, wie du gesagt hast; denn mit deinem Himmel habe ich meinen Bauch ordentlich vollgeschlagen..."

Meme: The Year in Review. Gacked from fearciuil

Go to your Calendar and find the first entry for each month of 2009. Post the first line of it in your journal, and that's your "Year In Review."

January
Leave me a comment and I will reply with why I like you.

February
Gacked this from Doctordidj but had to post it here for the benefit of my friends. (Video of a guy flying over a lake with a water-powered jetpack)

March
I asked my daughter, Fortunata, to create an image of the Old Wolf, my otherworldly avatar - naturally it was a paid commission. (And naturally, I love it.)

April
It's not a good joke ... (When someone feels bad.)

May
Previous Russian bots were names like atelkrz, metonzo, adenkut. Go to their profiles and it's all in Cyrillic, pretty much a dead giveaway. (There have been almost none in the second half of the year. Huge respect to the LJ technical staff!)

June
Daily chores include walking, chasing down and feeding five dogs; bottle feeding 1 calf and 1 sheep 3 times a day; feeding chickens and 1 satanic pigeon, collecting an egg or two if there are any (last two days there haven't been, don't know if she's not laying or has found a different place to hide her eggs); letting sheep into the pasture in the morning and bringing them back at night (Mark is an excellent sheep dog); feeding the neighbor's horses once a day; caring for three caged birds; feeding wild birds; checking 5 cows for any new births (none so far); doing what repairs the weather will permit (it rains often and without warning); and handling any emergencies. (Farm livin' is the life for me!)

July
Terminator Salvation. I went to be entertained, I was entertained. Hardly edified, but that's not what these action films are for. (Self-explanatory)

August
Got up this morning and worked on updating a website for a couple of hours, and realized that I was suffering from sleep deprivation. So I went back to bed. [Because I can!]

Septober
1) "Your fetish for rubber underwear will cause you great embarrassment in public." [If you ran the fortune cookie factory...]

Octember
A person's divergent opinion doesn't scare me. I have friends (and relatives) who are straight, gay, transgender, republican, democrat, Mormon, atheist, Catholic, libertarian, Charismatic Evangelical, saved, damned, furry, fat, thin, Jewish, Klingon (at least, I'm pretty sure he is), and you name it. [Writer's block: Have you ever stopped being friends with someone over differences...]

Nowonder
Why, instead of buying an Enagic™ (Kangen™) water ionizer for $4,000, I could by a KYK water ionizer for only $1,700. [There's a sucker born every minute...]

December
I began smoking in 1964, at the age of 13, as a bid for acceptance at the prep school I attended... [Writer's Block: What are your feelings toward smoking...]

Change your Gender While You Still Can, and tell LJ about it.

No, I don't mean it that way.

LJ is getting ready to release code that will make your Gender specification at New Account creation a binary choice. Male or Female. That's it. Nothing Else. The "Unspecified" option is being removed.

An excellent blog entry on this issue is here at Synechdochic's Dreamwidth journal. The suggestion is to quickly change your gender to "Unspecified" and then leave respectful feedback to LJ before this code is pushed.

I personally don't have a problem with binary identification, but I know a whole slug of people who do. So this is reposted here in the name of a world that works for everyone.

[Edit:] LJ has addressed the issue - followup here

Tits like coconuts... and so do Octopi

Got your attention, didn't I?

I've seen octopi play. I've seen them use tools. I've seen them squeeze their ponderous bulk through a hole the size of a quarter. But I have never seen anything like this in my life. This little guy knows how to have fun with - and make good use of - coconut shells.

You can't tell me there's not intelligence in there...