Quick Fix for Egypt

Image via Wikipedia

 

After a few thoughts down in the bunker I figured out a quick fix for Egypt. While most political consultants would charge big money; I’ll give it away for free.

I’m nice like that.*

* Shut up … I am nice.

 

 

 

Obviously, Egypt needs to give a huge tax cut to the rich. This will help stabilize the economy, the

Image via Wikipedia

wealth to trickle down to the poor. With money, the protesters will not have free time to protest. They’ll be out spending money.

My plan is perfect … right?

Timothy John Keefe’s Amazing Career

Rob Neyer on his ESPN Sweetspot Blog has been talking about the ‘Hall of Amazing’ and includes Omar

Image via Wikipedia

Vizquel,  Jamie Moyer and Jim Abbott as inductees to this fine virtual hall.

But, Mr. Neyer is staying too much in present times. There is an amazing pitcher that surely doesn’t get his due. Tim

Keefe. Now I know that Tim Keefe is in the Hall of Fame takes away his eligibility from the ‘Hall of Amazing’, bit I want to make a pitch for an exception.

His 342-225 record and a 1887 visit the a sanitarium hinder his first try at the HOF in 1936. He was elected by the veterans committee in 1964. But Keefe won his 342 did this from 1880-1893. What makes it amazing? Here are some of the pitching changes that happen during that time:

• Pitching distance moved from 50′ to 60’6″
• Went from being allowed ONLY a bent elbow to any motion at all.
• Went from pitching in a “box” to pitching from a slab.
• Number of strikes went from 3 – 4 -3.
• Number of balls went from 8 – 7 – 6 – 7 – 6 – 7 – 5 – 4
• Up until 1887, the batter could call for a high or low pitch.

During these changes, Keefe was a very consistent pitcher. Now, if that doesn’t deserve a HOF to Hall Of Amazing cross-over, I don’t know if ANYTHING will.

Free Download from Victor Wooten

If you are a Victor Wooten fan then you probably already have this.  If you are not familiar with Victor Wooten, I suggest you take a few minutes and get this free download.

 

Happy Birthday American League!

 

Image via Wikipedia

Always good to celebrate a birthday. On January 28, 1901 Ban Johnson,  successfully move the American League from a “minor” league of the National League into it’s own major league. Thanks, in part, to the National League’s $2,400 salary limit teams in the American League were able to do a little roster raiding. This helped push the National League to modify the National Agreement and recognize the American League as a formal second major league.

While the American League was a success, it seemingly did so despite Ban Johnson. Johnson played favorites and tended to make life difficult for people, in his league, that he didn’t like. Not long after the creation of the American League, Ban Johnson’s upstart league was involved in the Black Sox Scandal.

Flamewar Guide

After reading a small-ish battle of words on the Linux Audio mailing list today (and the prolonged battle of words that happens on the OpenSUSE mailing lists)* I got to wondering .. is there a site the keeps up to date tabs on FLOSS flame wars?

* Oh, don’t judge me. Some people like TV Soap Operas for entertainment. Since I don’t work from home any more, I can’t watch Days of Our Lives … so I need my fix!

If there is not such a site, who wants to help put one together?

Should have seen *this* coming

Bah …Everybody should have seen this coming. When the newly elected members of Congress decided to read the Constitution in session AND then retrofitted the changes into the reading, this was a possible outcome.

“This morning for the time in  the history of the House of Representatives, we will read aloud the full text of the Constitution of the United States,” said Goodlatte. “We hope this will inspire many more Americans to read the Constitution. The text we are reading today reflects the changes to the document made by the 27 amendments to it. Those portions superceded by amendments will not be read.“

Some people now seemingly retrofitting history in the same way Congress retrofitted the reading of the Constitution. What people seem to forget is that the Founding Fathers knew they were not perfect. They understood their limitations, and the designed a compromise document is designed for change. It was not supposed to be *easy* to change, but the document was flexible enough to overcome the imperfection of the people that are ruled by it.

But, as is too often the case these days. People would rather retrofit the past instead of learning about the past and apply that knowledge to the present.

Nope, it is easier to throw a tantrum and claim that history was written wrong.

Just me thoughts.

NFL players think you are stupid

They must think we are stupid, otherwise this story makes no sense.

During the Bears/Packers games (or Cubs/Brewers game as *this* baseball fan called it), Jay Cutler received a grade II tear on his MCL. This cause him to leave the game.

Apparently Mr. Jones meant this tweet as a joke:

All I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee… I played the whole season on one…

Note: I find this odd, as Mr. Jones sat out games with his knee injury. Near the end of the season, when his team was fighting for a playoff spot.

Later, Mr. Jones backpedals a bit:

Everyone please read this. So you can understand I was not taking a shot at jay cutler http://bit.ly/hxrxgx

In the article, he says:

“I never attacked him, called him soft or a sore loser,” Jones-Drew in a telephone interview Monday. “I never questioned his toughness. I think people took my joke out of context. I was taking at shot at Florida fans.”

Oh .. I see .. he wasn’t making fun of Jay Cutler, he was using Jay Cutler to make fun of Florida fans.

Mr. Jones, just admit to it. Without a full understanding of Mr. Cutler’s knee injury, you used him quit to mock Florida fans. He said you played a full season on a bad knee (which was a lie, you missed games). Then you backpedaled on it.

Geesh. Man up. Admit you made a mistake and promise to leave the comedy to people who are actually funny. Don’t think that fans are so stupid they won’t notice when you publicly put your foot in your mouth after you bad mouth somebody in your own profession.

A Quick GoDaddy Update

Funny after a twitter update and a blog posting, GoDaddy responds.

Either I agree to paying $199 AND proving that I do opt-in before sending emails OR agree to not send emails they’ll free the domain.

OR I pay them $75 and they agree to cancel the domain.

Now, once again. Since I *don’t* send emails I can’t agree to the first part. I had a TOS on MYTURL.COM that said, basically, you agree not to use these in SPAM. But I can’t opt-in for email address.

Next, they don’t want the domain I have offered to move it several times. I ain’t paying $75.

I also asked to talk to a supervisor. In fact, I have asked that almost 20 times. Still the same response:

 Go Daddy has a strict anti-spam policy, Go Daddy customers are required
 to be able to provide conclusive proof of prior consent for any
 individual they send advertisements to. This also applies to the actions
 of any party that generates traffic on your behalf. This includes, but
 is not limited to, 3rd party marketers, business partners, employees,
 mailing list providers and affiliates.
 
 We have supplied an example address from a complaint in order to allow
 you to investigate the situation and show proof of prior consent to
 receive your mailings. Proof of prior consent can be provided by
 supplying the information outlined below.
 
 A. Provide server logs showing when the complainant connected to your
 site and subscribed, opted-in, or consented to receive marketing
 information from your organization. This information must include the
 following:
 
 * Time/Date of opt-in/subscription/consent.
 * IP address of the web server the complainant used to connect to your
 site.
 * Referral URL.
 
 B. Provide a detailed explanation of how the example email address was
 obtained, provide a copy of any confirmation messages, complete with
 header information, that this individual sent to you when they consented
 to receive marketing information from your company.
 
 C. In addition to the information outlined above, please forward all
 contact information you have for this individual along with any other
 relevant information that you feel supports your claim of prior consent.

Maybe* I am stupid, but I really fail to see where *I* met any of that criteria but GoDaddy is insisting that I did. Since the MYTURL.COM address in question was sent out when MYTURL.COM was down, it is clear that something is amiss. Instead of helping, GoDaddy simply wants money.

So, if anybody has any ideas I’m up for hearing them but .. at this time .. it looks like MYTURL.COM is dead because, basically, GoDaddy wants it to be.

The Stupidity of GoDaddy

So, as I clean up a few things from MYTURL.COM, let me state something I’ll continue to repeat:  I AM NOT A SPAMMER.

Running a free web service has challenges, and stop SPAM is one of the biggest ones. Even under the best of circumstances, bad things will happen. MYTURL.COM was one of the first (if not *the* first) Open Source (GPLv2) URL shortners available.  I think I got my first SPAM link before I got my first legitimate link.

But I made sure my stance on SPAM was know, this is from the defunct SPAM page (http://myturl.com/spam.adp)

a tiny url system, provided as a service to the entire
Internet by mek.

---

Hey! You sent my SPAM “you c***sucking m****f***er, why don’t you just die!”*

* Actual quote from an email, after I corrected the spelliing

A little info about SPAM and how it affects MYTURL.COM. First
note the terms of service:

Terms of Use

T url was created to make posting long URLs easier. Using it for spamming purposes is forbidden and any such use is simply stupid and you will be reported to all ISPs involved and to the proper governmental agencies.

This service and software is provided without warranty of any kind.

But people will include MYTURL.COM links in SPAM. If this happens
I am sorry. At the bottom of each web page is an email address, if
you find an email that is SPAM and contains a MYTURL.COM link, I ask
a favor or few:

1. Forward a copy of the email to turl@myturl.com
2. Report the spammer to the various real time blacklist sites, including Spamhaus, Spamcop, and Uribl.

Why? Well, if somebody does happen to ignore my Terms of Service, I would
like the chance to investigate when the link was create and put additional
steps in place to attempt to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Next, MYTURL.COM uses many black listing services in an attempt to block
those links from being created. Just as with SPAM, it is very difficult
to keep up with new tactics that spammers will use. If people sending
spam are reported to the proper places, it makes it easier to get them
blocked quicker.

How does MYTURL.COM attempt to block spammers?

MYTURL.COM does a number of things in an attempt to block SPAM.

• We check the incoming address when somebody attempts to add a URL,
  if that incoming IP address is on a SPAM blacklist (also called Realtime
  Blacklist or RBL), MYTURL.COM refuses the link and gives the spammer en
  error message.
• If the incoming IP address (or host) passes the above test, MYTURL.COM
  then checks the URL and IP address of the given link against 5 realtime
  blacklist. If the URL or IP address of the link is found to be on
  one of those lists, a MYTURL.COM link is not created and the user
  is given an error message.
• If the link passes those two tests, the MYTURL.COM link is created.
• Each time a MYTURL.COM link is clicked on, when the connection
  comes to the server, before the link is redirected it is check to see
  if the link has turned up on a realtime blacklist. If that link
  is NOW on a blacklist, the link is *not* redirected and a message
  is displayed.
• Every two hours, all links that have been clicked in the two hour
  period are checked to see if those links fail the blacklist testing. Failing
  links are disabled

GoDaddy (yep, the DNS register that believes whoring out women is good advertising) said that MYTURL.COM was used for SENDING SPAM. When they finally sent me email it contained no headers and used a MYTURL.COM link that NEVER EXISTED. I raised the concern, to them, that somebody might of hi-jacked the domain.

The called me a SPAMMER.

I attempted to call them to discuss the matter, on the phone they called me:

“I worthless fucking SPAM. I should just give up the domain”

Then hung up on me.  They asked me to make my TOS and SPAM information more clear.  I point them to the above info and asked them what they wanted added.  The never replied.  I disabled accepting new links and disabled current links on MYTURL.COM. Basically it was a static site while I waited for GoDaddy to reply to what they wanted me to add.

They disabled my MYTURL.COM, claiming I *continued* to *SEND SPAM*. Once again, no proof.

Since then I have sent several emails and called at least 10 times to talk to a supervisor to get this handled.

GoDaddy has yet to reply.

Fark Me? No. Fark You?

In case you didn’t want to do the research yourself, some folks have invaded Wikipedia and created the List of films that most frequently use the work f*ck.

This,is of course, information I am quite simply surprised you were able to exists without knowing.