Fantasyland.
When I worked in TV news, “Fantasyland” was known as the area where the Producers sat.
[Read more...]
Off the Wall
Posted on January 4, 2011 Written by 55 Comments
The Case for Strong Passwords
Posted on December 14, 2010 Written by 20 Comments
The massive Gawker password breach has kicked off a part-voluntary and part-mandatory wave of password changes.
A crook who gets into your email can get just about anywhere — and not all of them end up getting jacked around by me on Facebook Chat.
(I used Storify to assemble the pieces for this post — you have to have Java enabled to view the story below) [Read more...]
When Your Friend Gets Hacked
Posted on December 3, 2010 Written by 143 Comments
Note: if someone sent you this link, and you want to just skip to the fun part of the post, click here. But please come back for the meat…
“Help, I’ve been mugged in the United Kingdom!”
If you do see this pop up in a Facebook chat, don’t freak out.
It means your friend has been hacked. It usually starts with their email address being compromised, and the identity thief uses that to take over other online accounts.
Here’s what you need to know to help your friend (and here’s why you don’t want to try to hack my friends.)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Friending Strangers On Fakebook
Posted on October 14, 2010 Written by 542 Comments
Do you still think you need to be connecting to everyone in Social Media? After Farmville and Mafia Wars, the biggest games on Facebook involve your data.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(Note: The sequel is now live)
Identity Crises
I’m connected to many different circles of people from different times in my life. I’ve got connections to work, to church, to hobbies, and to places I’ve lived and gone to school. Also, because I spent so many years on the air as a TV reporter, I’m fairly recognized in the area where I live. [Read more...]
The Accidental Tourist
Posted on November 27, 2009 Written by 3 Comments
Usually, I have a good idea why people come to this site.
I use the free Sitemeter tool to track hits, and as I generally have low traffic and no ads, that’s decent enough for me.
Sitemeter tracks the last 100 visitors, and let’s me know (among other things) the page they hit, how long they stayed, what site they were on when they clicked over, what operating system, which city — a treasure trove of information.
(For instance, a lot of my traffic comes from search engines, so I can tell when people are looking for “Chocolate Covered Cockroaches” and coming to my site.)
In the last week or so, I have seen a lot of traffic from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And in the last couple of days, a similar spike from Tema, Ghana.
A couple of years ago, the spike in Saudi traffic was almost entirely centered on my “Live Nude Girls” post, but in this current wave I have no clue. The Riyadh and Tema visits are clean, no trace of the info.
It’s quite possible those are just compromised proxies, and I am being auto-scanned for vulnerabilities by overseas hackers. And, with that in mind, time to boost my security settings…
That’s why it pays to pay attention to these sorts of things.
