Tech Stuff

Google Dictionary

I assume such a thing exists, but I don’t know.

So I used plain old Google for a Spanish dictionary earlier this morning. You see, I saw on a news site a Spanish word I didn’t recognize. Its context didn’t help me determine the meaning.

After I Googled the term and while I waited for the results to arrive on my very slow dial-up connection, I Alt-Tabbed around to other projects I was multi-tasking.

When I came back to Google, I was stunned at the images that were included in the Image Search portion of the search results.

😯

I quickly scanned the other results and discovered the meaning of the word.

Not a bad word at all.

But obviously a very useful one for promoting PornoImagery.

Lesson learned, I hope: Don’t use Google Search as a dictionary.

And, no, I won’t tell you what the perfectly innocuous word is.

A Peek at My Email

OK, now we’ll see how many hits that title snags! :mrgreen:

Just so you don’t get your hopes up, though, this is all I’m going to show you:

Mark Roth's emailbox -- a real, clipped screenshot

You may click on it to read it in full size, if you wish.

So what’s the point of this post?

Why, I want to zero in on some things for you, that’s what! For instance, these three folders:

Mark Roth's emailbox -- a real, clipped screenshot

So much in the Trash — and most of it is spam! 😐

And most of what’s in Hold For Later is also spam. I’m saving it so I can use that info to fine tune the filters at a later date.

And of these five here in the In box, three are spam:

Mark Roth's emailbox -- a real, clipped screenshot

Imagine if all those were true (and not just two of them).

Me? Earning $50 an hour will doing the “pen blog posts” thing?

Me? Being in some Super Duper Important Who’s Who?

Me? Doing talk radio as a host and contacting people with “Talk Radio Invitations”?

🙄 Right.

How gullible do these email marketers spammers take me to be?

Rhetoric aside, even though the above images all appear to be reductions or clippings of the same image, they actually are the same image. Ahhh, the wonders of CSS (cascading style sheets). Maybe sometime I’ll tell you how it’s done.

(I’m anxious to get this finished, posted, and out of the way so I can post five more photos I took here at Luke and LaVay’s place near Madras, Oregon.)

WordPress Under Attack

Lorrelle is urgently warning:

Otto42 of OttoDestruct, a key WordPress developer and supporter, reports that there is an “attack” on older versions of WordPress right now. The number of sites hit by this is growing every hour. Protect your WordPress blog now: UPDATE NOW!!!

Update your WordPress blog before you continue reading this post. That’s how critical this issue is.

If you blog with a private installation of WordPress, heed the warning. Update now.

Then read the rest of what Lorrelle on WordPress has to say: Old WordPress Versions Under Attack.

Mark Ghosh of weblogtoolscollection weighs in as well:

Older version of WordPress are being attacked and characters are being added to the permalinks. Sure signs of the attack include strange characters in your permalinks (single posts do not work) and an extra administrator account in the users control panel which you cannot see. Look for the administrator count in brackets at the top. Is the number there what you would expect on your blog?

Please upgrade your WordPress blog to the latest version ASAP. Our own PluginBlog was vulnerable and was compromised (shame on me for not having upgraded from a really old version). Our blog had registration turned off.

After upgrading your blog and changing your password to a strong one, you can visit Lorelle’s post to find more ways to secure your install and remove the extra admin account that might have been created as part of the attack.

If your WordPress blog is not hosted at wordpress.com — I urge you to update your installation. Now!

Networking Issue Resolved

For two years (if not more), I’ve been unable to get my two Windows XP machines to “talk” to each other on my simple little network using a crossover cable.

My client machine could access files off the host machine, but not the other way around.

This evening I finally found the answer quite by accident, so to speak.

I was nosing around in Control Panel –> Administrative Tools –> Computer Management.

I got to Services and Applications –> Services –> Server and upon right-clicking it and selecting Properties, I ended up solving the problem.

Crossover cable xp network server properies under computer management in administrative tools

It was paused on my client machine, thus making it impossible for the host machine to access it. I clicked Resume and it did the trick!

Praise the Lord!

Anyway, click the above image for a larger image with more helpful details.

So there you are: I connect two computers together (I know that’s redundant, OK?) using an ethernet crossover cable. I don’t need a router. I don’t need the Internet. Just a crossover cable.

That may resolve your home networking problems, like it did mine!

Shortcuts to Shortcuts

If you’re a Mac user exclusively, this won’t do much for you. :mrgreen:

If you are a Windows user who tends to switch back and forth among multiple programs, you can save yourself time by creating a keyboard shortcut. While the little icons on your desktop are shortcuts that point to a program or other file on your hard disk, you can easily create a keyboard shortcut to a shortcut.

When you create a key combination for a shortcut, it will open the program, or switch to the program if it’s already running. Be sure to avoid creating keyboard shortcuts that conflict with built-in shortcuts or those you use a lot in programs. For example, you’ll want to avoid Ctrl+S save, Ctrl+P print, Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+X cut and Ctrl+V paste. Here are a few easy steps to create a shortcut to a shortcut:

  1. Right-click the shortcut on your desktop.
  2. Select Properties from the pop-up menu.
  3. Click in the Shortcut key box it says None if you have no shortcut key assigned
  4. Press the key combination you want to use to access your shortcut. You can use letters or numbers in conjunction with the Ctrl, Alt, or Shift keys. Or you can use the function keys at the top of your keyboard. Click OK.

Oh. You’re a Windows user and that doesn’t much for you either? Oh well. 😆

Source: Printer@Work

Pitching Pitiful Passwords

So how do you protect all your accounts online?

How do you go about making up passwords for all those accounts?

I just got one of Clark Howard’s emails with a link to a post on that subject. So here you go:

With all the talk of high-level hacking, it’s easy to forget that it is we who make ourselves most vulnerable on a very individual level. PC Magazine recently compiled a list of the 10 most common passwords in the United States today. Do not use these on confidential e-mail accounts! Read it all

Above all, love God!
Private