Dear friend, How are you recently? I bought a laptop from a China company T0SHPD last week(the site is :www.toshpd1.com), and I received it now. The products are high quality with a very low price. They also sell mobile phones, TV, games, and so on. They are from Korea, Japan. You can go to their site to have a look, I am sure you will get many surprise and benefits. Best regards. h–)

It is in her Yahoo Mail Sent folder. It is not in the Sent folder for her desktop client (Outlook Express). Her computer passes a malware scan.

The site named first in the text looks to sell the kind of merchandise described. It has Whois record:

Domain Name: T0SHPD.COM
Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE
Whois Server: whois.melbourneit.com
Referral URL: http://www.melbourneit.com
Name Server: NS1.DNSPOOD.NET
Name Server: NS2.DNSPOOD.NET
Status: ok
Updated Date: 14-aug-2010
Creation Date: 14-aug-2010
Expiration Date: 14-aug-2011

Its Google footprint seems to be a few dozen copies of that spam message, plus the default hits one gets for any domain with a live site.

The site actually linked via the URL has Whois record:

Domain Name: TOSHPD1.COM
Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE
Whois Server: whois.melbourneit.com
Referral URL: http://www.melbourneit.com
Name Server: NS1.DNSPOOD.NET
Name Server: NS2.DNSPOOD.NET
Status: ok
Updated Date: 23-sep-2010
Creation Date: 23-sep-2010
Expiration Date: 23-sep-2011

Its Google footprint is very small.

The recipients are:

• Linda’s husband, daughter, daughter’s boyfriend, sister
• Linda’s close friend
• A mailing list to which Linda posts
• A friend with whom Linda has emailed exactly once in the past 3 decades
• A person whose name and address Linda doesn’t recognize

There’s no news of a Yahoo Mail attack going around that I could detect.

The password on Linda’s Yahoo Mail account (since changed) was not ridiculous, not brilliant, and not specific to that site alone. So the simplest theory is that her account was hit randomly, with her password being either:

• Guessed
• Repurposed from some other site she registered at.

Do any other plausible theories come to mind?

Be careful out there, people.

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

but that’s just a longer way of saying the same thing.

Why does “securing … exclusive Right[s]” to the creators of things that are patented, copyrighted, or trademarked help make it a good decision for them to create stuff? Because it averts competition from copiers, thus making the creator a monopolist in what s/he has created, allowing her to at least somewhat value-price her creation.

I.e., the core point of intellectual property rights is to prevent copying-based competition. By way of contrast, any other kind of intellectual property “right” should be viewed with great suspicion.

Examples of my views include:

• In a recent comment I pooh-poohed an expansive interpretation of the GPL, even as I supported the GPL in core cases.
• I believe that most kinds of software patents are or should be invalid, but I’m willing to make an exception for innovative user experiences.
• I believe in copyright, even though I agree with consensus that in many cases copyright-holders’ business models will evolve away from the licensing of intellectual property. For example, I’m mightily annoyed when somebody claims my words as their own. But I give mine away for free. I just want to get the reputational benefit of what I write, and also to aggregate comments on my original blog posts rather than having them go to some other site.

• For starters, let me link to some of the posts I’ve made pointing to April Fool’s pranks in past years, including:
  • (2009) A wonderful spoof of the analyst business
  • (2009) Donald Farmer’s hilarious version of business intelligence
  • (2009) The Guardian’s translation of its news and archives to tweets (“OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5×6e for more”)
  • (2009) Google’s world-dominating, blog-writing AI with the personality of a pre-adolescent girl
  • (2009) Expedia’s space-travel offering
  • (2008) Netezza’s green box
  • (2008) LOTRO’s spoof quests — like other MMO folks, the Lord Of The Rings Online guys can be really funny. (But in retrospect I’m not so sure they were spoofs so much as a new comedic option in the game introduced on a cleverly-chosen date.)
  • (2007) My attempt to one-up Scoble et al., without much success.
  • (2002) A classic: Google PigeonRank
• I found a couple of sites that catalog April Fool’s pranks around the world (not just techie ones). The Museum of Hoaxes offers a curated approach, so their list is pretty funny. Another site lists just about every web hoax anybody bothers to submit, so it’s quality is more mixed (and a lot of the links now don’t work).
• While thinking about this post, I recalled and posted about some software industry pranks. The MSA/M&D ones still boggle my mind, but I couldn’t think of much else to match them.
• And then, of course, there was the time this blonde joke made, as it were, the rounds.

Stancle had been accused of creating a Facebook profile belonging to a nonexistent teenage girl and then, between approximately the spring of 2007 and November of 2008, using it to convince more than 30 of his male classmates to send in nude photos or videos of themselves.

Stancl then reportedly threatened to post the photos or videos on the Internet if they didn’t engage in some sort of sexual activity with him. At least seven of them have said they were coerced into sex acts, which Stancl documented with a cell phone camera.

Stancl’s victims were teenage boys focused on sex — not exactly the world’s clearest thinkers. Even so, I find it remarkable that multiple people would:

1. Send nude photographs of themselves to a stranger.
2. Be so concerned about those photographs getting published online that they would submit to sexual blackmail.
3. Allow the results of their sexual blackmail to be photographed.

Literally — WTF??

• The generalities I posted a few years ago still apply (and, I think, are a good read in any case about the realities of analyst coverage).
• The updates a year and a half ago are still very accurate, although I might name different specific clients today.
• The partial client list from half a year ago is still pretty accurate, although Microsoft and Kognitio have dropped off, Clearpace changed its name to RainStor, and non-RDBMS analytic data management/analysis contenders Cloudera and Splunk have been added.
• While I have user clients, I have nothing to disclose about them.

One new development is that for the first time since 2001, I’ve taken stock in a private company. It’s Petascan, a seed/stealth-stage outfit with some very innovative ideas about how to use Flash memory in support of analytic data processing.  I’d like to do more of this, with conflicts evaluated on a case-by-case basis.  For example, I bet I could bring a lot of value to vertically-oriented analytics start-ups, who would at worst compete with only a small fraction each of the business of the more horizontally-oriented companies I generally write about.

For the past several years, we’ve had an annual refresh of our vendor service offerings, always unveiled in the fall. This year has seen more change than usual, and so I’d like to share some of the highlights with you here. A revampimg of our services for users is in the works as well, and I’ll share that too with you when it is finalized.

Aspects that haven’t changed much include:

• We ask all vendor clients to join a program called the Monash Advantage.
• Monash Advantage members get effectively unmetered quick-inquiry consulting, and more in-depth advice sessions as well.
• Our speaking and writing services, which vendors like to use for lead generation and general image-buffing, are generally restricted to Monash Advantage members
• The entry-level Monash Advantage price is $10,000/year

The biggest change from prior years is that there are now three tiers of the Monash Advantage, up from one.

• The Monash Advantage Lite is for small, tightly-focused companies with severe budget constraints. We offer suggestions and help them think through their most pressing issues, a few times each year.
• The Monash Advantage Basic is for more typical technology companies. We help them with anything and everything.
• The Monash Advantage Custom is for companies that want us to serve as core strategic advisors.

The early response to this tiering has been very positive, and we have had multiple sign-ups for 2010 at each of the three levels.

Another change is that we no longer require companies to join the Monash Advantage on a strict calendar-year basis. Now, it’s calendar quarters, and for Custom members we’re completely flexible.

Finally, we’re open to doing stock deals with seed-stage companies, at least ones that don’t compete closely with our other clients. For example, I’ve just started advising one stealth start-up in a hardware area that complements analytic DBMS, and I’m having a blast.  I’ll disclose the names of any companies I have private stock in, as well as offering at least a capsule of what is publicly known about what they’re pursuing.

]]> http://www.monashreport.com/2009/12/14/our-services-for-technology-vendors/feed/ 1 http://www.monashreport.com/2009/12/14/our-services-for-technology-vendors/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/monashreport/feed/~3/BSLBBn5q1QA/ http://www.monashreport.com/2009/09/03/openoffice-microsoft-word-wordpress-cruft/#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:09:53 +0000 Curt Monash http://www.monashreport.com/?p=208 I prepare most of my blog posts in OpenOffice. Most of the rest I write directly online in WordPress. I almost never use Microsoft Word.

The reason, simply put, is cruft.

When I copy a post from OpenOffice to WordPress, I invariably get a line at the top that looks like

<!–         @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in }         P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }     –>

I delete that, which according to OpenOffice stats amounts to exactly 100 characters; I fiddle with the bullet points a bit; I add a title, categories, and a MORE separator; and I’m basically good to go.

By way of contrast, in a recent post I copied a sentence from a press release I’d recieved across Google Mail in .DOC format, forgetting to stage it into OpenOffice first.  The cruft I needed to delete consisted of 6489 characters, namely:

<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} @font-face {font-family:”MS Mincho”; panose-1:2 2 6 9 4 2 5 8 3 4; mso-font-alt:”ＭＳ 明朝“; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1593833729 1073750107 16 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:”\@MS Mincho”; panose-1:2 2 6 9 4 2 5 8 3 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-language:JA;} h2 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:2; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-language:JA; font-weight:normal;} h3 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:12.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:3.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:3; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:13.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”; mso-fareast-language:JA; font-weight:bold;} p.MsoCommentText, li.MsoCommentText, div.MsoCommentText {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; 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text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} p.CommentSubject, li.CommentSubject, div.CommentSubject {mso-style-name:”Comment Subject”; mso-style-parent:”Comment Text”; mso-style-next:”Comment Text”; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-language:JA; font-weight:bold;} p.BalloonText, li.BalloonText, div.BalloonText {mso-style-name:”Balloon Text”; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none; font-size:8.0pt; font-family:Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-language:JA;} span.stylearial10ptblack {mso-style-name:stylearial10ptblack;} span.body1 {mso-style-name:body1; 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mso-level-legacy-space:0in; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in; font-family:Symbol;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} –>

That’s a whole other level of annoying.

Meanwhile, this is as good a time as any to offer lyrics and music/video for the classic Leslie Fish filk song “Banned from Argo.”

Our proper, cool first officer was drugged with something green
And hauled into an alley, where he suffered things obscene
He sobered up in sickbay and he’s none the worse for wear
Except he’s somehow taught the bridge computer how to swear

Actually, this version has better sound and image quality, but the video part doesn’t speak to me.

Also:

• A collection of Dr. McCoy clips.
• A song combining Star Trek and The Hobbit.
• A video (large download) to Julia Ecklar’s beautiful song God Lives on Terra, with Star Trek:TNG clips interspersed with views of Wrentham, MA.  (I previously linked a hilarious parody of that song.)
• Another Bob Kanefsky parody song, this one based on a specific Star Trek episode. (Melody and performance by Leslie Fish.)

Overall, the interview went a lot better than my last one with the same station.

I work from my house, as does my wife Linda Barlow. That makes it an interesting place right there, as Linda has published 15 novels, served two terms as a director of the Author’s Guild, testified as an expert witness on HTML technology in Federal court and, for variety, taught neurobiology at a local college. She is also a much better MMO player than I am.

Monday night, however, things got interesting in another way. On the whole, I’m not apt to be particularly celebrity-struck. I grew up in Beverly Hills; worked with bunches of politicians, Nobel Laureates and Fields Medalists at Harvard; talk for hours with some of the tech industry’s biggest names; and have met some extremely popular authors through Linda. Still, I thought it was cool to be Twittering back and forth with LeVar Burton, of Roots and Star Trek fame, especially when he sent a direct message that read, in its entirety, “Exactly!!! Well said.” But unfortunately, that wasn’t the most interesting part either.

The flare-up

While I was tweeting away in the middle of the night, I heard a shout from Linda. It turned out that we had a fire on our 49-year-old electric stove. (A burner had failed to turn off, a plastic cutting board had fallen onto it, and flames had started.)

Some lessons from that should be obvious.

We fumbled ineffectively with the fire extinguishers.

Lessons learned:

Make sure you know how to USE your safety equipment. Also, at least try for workarounds on the fly. I should have carried the fire extinguisher outdoors to safety and then worked hard on figuring it out; the fire was small enough I could have still gone back in and extinguished it. Indeed, it was eventually extinguished by a policeman using a similar device, before the fire department ever arrived.

Not doing anything useful with the fire extinguishers, I tried throwing a small amount of water on the fire, just in case what we’d heard about water not helping w/ kitchen fires was wrong. But it turned out to be correct. Perhaps if I’d wetted the cabinets in the line of fire — as it were — the flames’ climb would have been slowed, but I didn’t try that.

Ultimately, all that was destroyed by the flames was the stove itself, some adjacent cabinets, and some contents of same. The real damage from fire turns out to be caused by smoke. Disgusting fire extinguisher powder added greatly to the perceived mess, but probably didn’t actually wreck very many incremental items.

The clean-up

The fire left a small part of our house destroyed, a large part uninhabitable, and the rest uncomfortable. The insurance company happily feels obligated to set things to rights.

The most interesting aspect, I think, is the business process. There is a master contractor called Belfor for restoration, aka remediation, with dozens of offices nationwide. Its employees — who arrived the first afternoon after the fire — do the actual multi-week demolition and clean-up. They subcontract as needed, e.g. for a quick visit by an electrician. Another firm handles all clothes cleaning. A third handles rugs, carpets, and upholstery. All had paid us their first visit by the day after the fire. The insurance adjuster himself arrived the morning of the second day.

There’s a bit of a trend in the auto insurance industry too to move to in-kind services. Auto glass is, I think, commonly handled that way, on a no-fault basis. And some auto insurers, such as Plymouth Rock, handle all repairs themselves.

The benefit to our insurer, Liberty Mutual, is obvious — repeated purchases from specialized suppliers it knows and trusts. Meanwhile, we’re being served by a large and knowledgeable firm, Belfor, that is accountable to another large firm, Liberty Mutual. Not everything is perfect, but the competence/accountability/BS frontier is in a whole different place than I’ve commonly experienced in home contracting scenarios. This is much more of a B2B relationship than it is classical consumer schmooze-and-abuse.

A little bit of cool (or hot) technology

A lot of what’s being done involves saws, sponges, and trash bags. But occasionally an interesting big of electronics pokes through. The most important one was right up front. The fire department has infrared cameras or detectors they use after a fire is apparently out, to confirm that nothing more is smoldering in the walls. This is a huge improvement over the prior technology, which is an ax they used to smash the walls and see for themselves.

I am told that a more advanced version of this is used on water damage sites. How do you detect the source of a leak, which almost always is in a wall, under a floor, or underground? Well, what you’re really trying to detect is an abundance of water. So if there’s any reason for the water to be hotter or cooler than the surrounding structure, an infrared temperature detector may uncover the leak.

Infrared gets mentioned once again in tape-measure-replacement tech. Supposedly, the device is accurate to 1/16th of an inch. My first search engine hit looking for something similar turned up a combo infrared and sonic tool, for $149, advertised at 1/4″ accuracy. Hmm. Cool toy, but I think I have other gadget priorities first.

We also have some heavy-duty air cleaners going, with charcoal adsorption as the core technology. This has already gotten a nod of approval from Linda’s ex-husband, who happens to be an international expert on indoor air pollution.

And yet more

For once, I’m using Twitter the “official” way — briefly updating followers on the state of my life, good and bad alike. I imagine I’ll scale that back soon, for my followers’ sake as well as my own. But for now, I’m giving a bit of a fire-survival play-by-play.