Version 3.14159…
Here is a screenshot of the message I get whenever I click on Inbox messages, to read them, even if those messages (appear to) come from Facebook.
“You are using this feature to spam other users” (emphasis added).
As a programmer I am 100% certain this is a bug but I honestly hope that I’m not the only person who reacted to this error with a “Fuck you Facebook”.
A friend sent me a link to a project related to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter which seems to be intended to drum up some sort of “support” for the LRO project. How sending your name to the moon is supposed to support the LRO project I don’t know. I suppose it’s at least as effective as signing a petition. I assume that they are loading the names submitted into the NASA equivalent of a thumb-drive and strapping that puppy on the LRO somewhere… I imagine zip-tied to a landing strut or something.
Now, my first thought was: I wonder if one could enter a name that would cause a buffer overflow on the web-form and initiate some form of SQL injection attack, then leverage that to gain control of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter after launch. It’s worth noting at this point that I have neither the inclination, knowledge or ability to perform such a hack… I can’t really even confirm that a SQL injection attack on the server would work. My point is that I thought of it. Bruce Schneier wrote an article about the Security Mindset that made me realize that not everyone looks for the worst case scenario. I’m an engineer and engineers generally only care about making the process work, and truly that is very often more than enough for me, but I am also an employee in a very secure facility where security is paramount. I work in an environment where the users cannot be trusted, by policy. Sometimes it’s tough for me to convince others of the things I see as possible security holes because they truly do not see the possibility of users exploiting them.
I do not think that people are inherently un-trustworthy. I simply trust that there are some people bloody-minded enough in the world to seek out, stumble upon, be shown and then exploit any weakness in any system.
Puck, the smaller of my two ferrets, somehow managed to injure himself. I noticed this when he came galloping at me in the morning, as usual, with an unusual gait. Turns out that he’s managed to hurt his leg enough that he can barely move it. Being a ferret, he reacted to this by behaving entirely normally, begging for treats and following me around. So, he spent some time at the veterinarian today, getting an X-Ray to be sure that nothing serious was broken. The results, inconclusive. Nothing apparently broken but he still can’t move his leg. So, here he is, bandaged up:
Work shall be over soon. This is good because I need a nap.
WANT! http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/steampunklaptop.htm
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig… and getting over some sort of stomach bug.
So, I’ve recently worked out a serious level of integration between all of the various “social network” sites I’m affiliated with, as well as my website… and phone… and productivity tools. The glue, it seems, is Twitter. Since everybody seems to have an API that updates from or to Twitter, it can serve as the central communication hub among the plethora of sites out there… including this one.
Long story short, since I can now update basically everything at once, and do it from the web, an IM client or even directly from my cellphone, updates should come somewhat more frequently now.
For anyone interested, it’s a combination of the Twitter Tools and Wordbook Wordpress plugins, TwitterSync app on Facebook, IMIfied for instant message integration and Jott for updates while on the move.
Watching Battlestar Galactica: Razor
Testing Jott to Twitter integration. http://tinyurl.com/yqxhg9
Testing the integration between my blog and twitter.
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