Oh Happy Day
A few weeks ago published a short post on the demise of Atrivo (aka Intercage). Today Washington Post technology columnist Brian Krebs brings word that McColo Corp., a Northern California hosting firm that had been identified by the computer security community as home base for machines responsible for coordinating the sending of roughly 75 percent of all spam each day, has been taken offline.
Host of Internet Spam Groups is Cut Off
Spam Drops After Internet Providers Disconnect a California Hosting Firm
By Brian Krebs
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 12, 2008; 7:16 PMThe volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide dropped drastically today after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations allegedy engaged in spam activity was taken offline, according to security firms that monitor spam distribution online.
While its gleaming, state-of-the-art, 30-story office tower in downtown San Jose, Calif., hardly looks like the staging ground for what could be called a full-scale cyber crime offensive, security experts have found that a relatively small firm at that location is home to servers that serve as a gateway for a significant portion of the world’s junk e-mail.
The servers are operated by McColo Corp., which these experts say has emerged as a major U.S. hosting service for international firms and syndicates that are involved in everything from the remote management of millions of compromised computers to the sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and designer goods, fake security products and child pornography via email.
But the company’s web site was not accessible today, when two Internet providers cut off MoColo’s connectivity to the Internet, security experts said. Immediately after McColo was unplugged, security companies charted a precipitous drop in spam volumes worldwide. E-mail security firm IronPort said spam levels fell by roughly 66 percent as of Tuesday evening.
Spamcop.net, another spam watch dog, found a similar decline, from about 40 spam e-mails per second to around 10 per second. Read the rest…
Score one for the good guys… Of course I’m sure we’ll all miss those ads for male enhancement products in inbox… 
Lest We Forget… Why He Fought
From the Boston Globe via Michelle Malkin:
The following is a blog entry written on Aug. 30, 2008, by Army Specialist Stephen Fortunato, who was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan when the vehicle he was riding in was blown up by an improvised explosive device. This entry was forwarded to the Globe by his mother, Elizabeth “Betty” Crawford.
If I may …
I’d like to say something….Just to get it out there so it is clear.
To all the pampered and protected Americans who feel it is their duty to inform me that I am not fighting for their freedom, and that i am a pawn in Bush’s agenda of greed and oil acquisition: Noted, and [expletive deleted] You.I am not a robot. i am not blind or ignorant to the state of the world or the implications of the “war on terrorism.” i know that our leaders have made mistakes in the handling of a very sensitive situation, but do not for one second think that you can make me lose faith in what we, meaning America’s sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers in uniform are doing.
I am doing my part in fighting a very real enemy of the United States, i.e. Taliban, Al Qaida, and various other radical sects of Islam that have declared war on our way of life. Unless you believe the events of 9/11 were the result of a government conspiracy, which by the way would make you a MORON, there is no reasonable argument you can make against there being a true and dangerous threat that needs to be dealt with. i don’t care if there are corporations leaching off the war effort to make money, and i don’t care if you don’t think our freedom within America’s borders is actually at stake. i just want to kill those who would harm my family and friends. it is that simple. Even if this is just a war for profit or to assert America’s power, so what? Someone has to be on top and I want it to be us. There’s nothing wrong with wishing prosperity for your side.
I am a proud American. i believe that my country allows me to live my life more or less however i want to, and believe me, i have seen what the alternative of that looks like. i also believe that our big scary government does way more than it has to to help complete [expletive deleted]-ups get back on their feet, a stark comparison to places where leaders just line their own pockets with gold while allowing the people who gave them their power and privilage to starve. I have chosen my corner. I back my country, and am proud to defend it against aggressors. Also, if you dare accuse us of being inhumane, or overly aggressive because we have rolled into someone else’s country and blown some [expletive deleted] up and shot some people, let me remind you of just how inhumane we COULD be in defending ourselves. Let me remind you that we have a warhead that drops multiple bomblets from the stratosphere which upon impact, would turn all the sand in Iraq to glass, and reduce every living thing there to dust. Do we use it? No. Instead we use the most humane weapon ever devised: the American soldier. We send our bravest (and perhaps admitably craziest) men and women into enemy territory, into harms way, to root out those whom we are after and do our best to leave innocent lives unscathed.
…One last thing…a proposal. i know it has been stated time and time again but i just think it is worthy of reiteration. If you find yourself completely disgusted with the way America is being ran, and how we handle things on the global stage, you can leave. Isn’t that amazing? No one will stop you! If you are an anarchist, there are places you can go where there is no government to tell you anything. That’s right…you are left solely to your own devices and you can handle the men who show up at your door with AKs in any way that you see fit. Just don’t try good old American debate tactics on them because you will most likely end up bound and blind-folded, to have your head chopped off on the internet so your parents can see it. However if you insist on staying here and taking advantage of privilages such as free speach and WIC, keep the counter-productive [expletive deleted] to a minimum while the grown ups figure out how to handle this god-awful mess in the middle east.
I thank God everyday that this nation is blessed with men like Specialist Fortunato… Please keep him and all service men and women in your thoughts and prayers.
Rest In Peace Specialist.
Florida 7th Grader Called Racist For Wearing Palin T-shirt
I thought liberals were supposed to be the tolerant ones???
VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) — She’s only 12 years old but Ashleigh Jones is feeling the heat of this election year.
That’s because the seventh grader at New Smyrna Beach Middle School was called a racist by classmates for wearing a pro-Sarah Palin t-shirt.
Jones is volunteering at the Republican Headquarters in New Smyrna Beach. The Palin t-shirt was a gift from her fellow volunteers.
But when she wore it to school she learned just how tough politics can be. Read the rest…
H/T: Flopping Aces.
Connecticut Supreme Court Rules Gay Couples Can Marry
The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that gay couples have the right marry. Personally, I’m not at all surprised by the ruling, and frankly I’m not bothered by it.
HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that gay couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions through the courts.
The ruling comes just weeks before Californians go to the polls on a historic gay-marriage ballot question, the first time the issue will be put before voters in a state where same-sex couples are legally wed.
The 4-3 ruling is the first time that a state that had willingly offered an alternative to marriage was told by a court that civil unions aren’t enough to protect the rights of gay couples. Connecticut was the first state to voluntarily pass laws to affirm civil unions.
Score One For Common Sense
From Examiner.com:
Judge dismisses blonde’s lawsuit over brown dye
(BRIDGEPORT, Conn.) - A Connecticut judge has given the brush-off to a blonde woman’s lawsuit claiming L’Oreal Inc. ruined her social life when she accidentally dyed her hair brunette with one of its products.
Charlotte Feeney of Stratford says she can never return to her natural blonde hue, a shock that left her so traumatized she needed anti-depressants. Read the rest…
The New York Sun
What a run… One of last true newspapers in America, the New York Sun, is closing it’s doors today.
I’ve been a reader and a fan of the Sun from the start… Over the last 6 and half years it’s front page has carried everything from photographs of works of art to exposes on corruption at the UN.
The Wall Street Journal writes in an editorial this morning:
How the Sun Shone
Read in precincts high and low, this New York paper has been a model for journalists.
It has been a newspaper whose front page carried photographs of great works of art, muckraking exposes, and not infrequently the paper’s confident editorials. In its six-and-a-half year run, the New York Sun achieved the status any newspaper seeks: It was read in precincts high and low, and it was read every day.
Today amid financial difficulties, the paper’s grand run is ending. Seth Lipsky, the newspaperman who was its founder and editor and also a long-time former Wall Street Journal colleague, knew from the start that New York’s media market was crowded, and that any new entrant faced a challenging future. He believed that a broadsheet that focused on local issues, such as political corruption and taxes, but also brought an erudite sensibility to its arts and books coverage (without political correctness), could fill a niche that the local competition tended to ignore. It might have worked had the daily not launched into the toughest headwinds that have ever faced the newspaper business. Read the rest…
More on the history of the New York Sun here and here.
Bill & Jerry… Dude???
Microsoft has released the second in a series of ads featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld… It’s an improvement over the first one but I’m still not sure Microsoft is trying to accomplish with these ads.
Dude, I mean WTF???
Bill & Jerry… WTF???
Dude, WTF???
I have no idea what Microsoft is trying to accomplish with this new ad featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld… but if this is their response to Apple’s hugely successful Get a Mac campaign they might want to go back the drawing board.
Again… Dude, WTF???
LPGA To Require English For International Players…
A lot has already been written about this so I’ll keep my remarks short… I agree wholeheartedly with the LPGA’s decision. English is the dominate language in this country and if you want to succeed in business you have to be able to speak the language. Make no mistake about it professional golf is a business and there is a staggering amount of money involved. Players are required to interact with sponsors, journalists, fans and tournament volunteers and officials and a single common language will make life much easier for all involved.
Golf-LPGA players told they must speak English from 2009
LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - The world’s top women golfers will be required to speak English from 2009 under new rules introduced by the LPGA Tour.
“We’re focusing on the fact that we’re in the sports entertainment business and we have to interact with fans and sponsors,” LPGA deputy commissioner Libba Galloway told the USA Today website (www.usatoday.com).
“This is not meant to be punitive in any way. There are very few players who don’t speak English.
“We don’t think suspensions will happen but if they do we’re not going to say, ‘Boom, go home and try again next year’,” she added. “We’ll work with them on identifying areas for improvement.”
There are 121 international players from 26 countries on the United States-based LPGA Tour, including 45 from South Korea alone. Read the rest…
Ho-hum Redux
I really should write something… Unfortunately, most of what’s in the news at the moment bores me to tears. I couldn’t care less about the Olympics and I’m sick of the presidential campaign… Cassandra at Villainous Company pretty much sums up my mood here.
I am deeply concerned about Russia’s assault on Georgia… I’m not expert on the region however and I’m not going to try and play one on the internet, I’ll leave to commentary and analysis on Georgia to C. Blake Powers (Laughing Wolf) at Blackfive and Michael J. Totten. If you haven’t read what they’ve written on the Georgian crisis you should.
That’s it for now.