Visual BASIC: The Proposal

Option Explicit

Dim time As Long
Dim life As Short
Dim you As Single
Dim I As Single
Dim us As Double

While time > life
   If us = you And I Then
      Set life = New beginning
   Else
      Call Me
      For time = Now() To life < time
         While you Or I
            Wait
            life = life + time
         Loop
      Next time
      time = time + time
   End If
   If time > life Then
      Execute us
   End If
Loop

NOTES

I wrote this poem back in 1999. It likely requires a nerd to understand it, but there's more and more of us out there every year.

Public Service: Identifying a Craigslist Scam

I received a message today from robot@craigslist.org that tripped my scam alert. If you look at the message, and the fact that it's coming from what looks to be a authentic email address, it would be easy to be fooled by this one, because Craigslist does in fact use a robot to confirm listings.  However, that robot usually sends a message right after you post your listing, not a week afterwards.  And this looks similar to that message, but something seemed to be off.  What reallly got me to doubt it wasn't the multiple exclamation marks, but the use of the word "ADD" for advertisement.

So I looked at the email message header, and found the scam in the reply-to line:

Reply-To: "craigslist - automated message, reply for verification" robot@crajgsljsts.org

How does the scam work?  I did my due diligence and came up with the following scenario from someone who feel for this:

You respond to the message with your post information. This allows the scammer to replace your post with their for sale post, which now looks like it is coming from you instead of them, thus giving it a legitimacy they wouldn't have had, and possibly also making it look like the advert is local.

The original message is reposted below so others who do a search may find this based on the text in the scam and not fall for it.

DEAR email_address

IMPORTANT - FURTHER ACTION IS REQUIRED TO PUBLISH YOUR (cars & trucks - by owner) ADD ONLINE - HUMAN VERIFICATION!!!
YOUR POSTING IS CURRENTLY HELD FOR VERIFICATION!!!
REPLY US YOUR CITY/STATE AND THE POST/EDIT/DELETE LINK FROM THE MESSAGE YOU RECEIVED EARLIER WITH SUBJECT LINE POST/EDIT/DELETE

Here are the steps you need to follow:

Find the message with the POST/EDIT/DELETE subject line

Copy the POST/EDIT/DELETE link.

Reply to this message by putting your POST/EDIT/DELETE link and your location: City/State in which you posted the ADD in the subject line.

Deliver us the message for human verification by pressing the SEND button in order to reactivate your posting.

You will find your POST/EDIT/DELETE link in an earlier message sent by us with this subject line: POST/EDIT/DELETE. You need to copy your entire link, paste it in the subject line of this message and reply to us.

*** HUMAN VERIFICATION IS A MECHANISM TO PREVENT SPAMMING ON CRAIGSLIST!!!

This is an attempt to ensure that the response is generated by a person.This message was sent to prevent automated software from performing actions which degrade the quality of our services, also this action is required to minimize automated posting on craigslist (cars & trucks - by owner). Human Verification Posting is sometimes required for posting on craigslist. Your posting is currently held for verification. Follow the instructions, and your posting will be verified and approved to go online on craigslist.
Your posting will expire off the site 45 days after it was created.

WARNING!! *** WARNING!! *** WARNING!! *** WARNING!!

Please be wary of distant 'buyers' responding to your ad! Many sellers receive replies from scammers hoping to defraud them through schemes involving counterfeit cashier's checks and/or wire transfers. These checks will clear the bank, but the person cashing the check will be held responsible when the fraud is discovered.

More info on scams can be found at this web address: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

Thanks for using craigslist!

Perhaps Competition Isn't the Way to Do Everything

Pamela Sargent forwarded this article, "What Americans Keep Ignoring about Finland's School Success," to me, perhaps because she knew I had been working recently in support of Ohio's education reform efforts. It's a worthy article to read if you are interested in education, and while the author focuses a bit more on the nature of Finland's equal access to education -- no mean feat, in this sense, as it's not just that everyone can go to school, but that everyone can go to ANY school, something that would be nigh to impossible to achieve in the U.S. because of the money involved in private education -- the point that the writer makes about Finland's respect for its teachers is where I think that the U.S. could make some strides. While I'm not anti-sports per se (I like sports, I just would rather play them myself than watch others play them--in a sense, it's the same kind of feeling I have about watching others play video games, in that I can admire the skill of the players, but I'd much rather be having fun myself), I strongly believe that U.S. schools place an incredible amount of emphasis on sports rather than academics.  No coach should be paid more than a teacher, from the Kindergarten level through collegiate. If winning is sports is so important in your school, than you've misplaced your school priorities.

This Week's Jam: Lindsey Buckingham, "One Take"

For your listening pleasure, this week's song is "One Take" by Lindsey Buckingham (link good through 10 Jan 2012).

When I first started listening to Fleetwood Mac, it was Stevie Nick's eroticism, rough-hewn voice, and fantasy-themed songs that drew me in, but over the years I learned that why I kept listening to them was Lindsey Buckingham's ecleticism and musicianship. His album, Out of the Cradle, is one of my top favorites, and there are a number of his songs, both by himself and with the Mac, that are 5-stars in my iTunes. This one is from his most recent album, and I happened to tag it with 5 stars, too.

The Yearly Letter for 2011

As in past years, we have once again put a summary of our past year in the form of a letter that contains a theme.  This year, since we seem to have been all over the world, the letter was done similar to the game/TV show, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

For a review of past letters, you can see the list at the bottom of the About page of this web site.

Best wishes for 2012!

Year End Reading Lists

I didn't read much this year, but the things I did read I liked quite a lot: Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus and Seth Fletcher's Bottled Lightning: Super Batteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy.  I recommend both to you highly.

I did run across a nice list elsewhere full of wonderful recommendations for my friend Dwight.  Paul Tremblay, a writer his ownself, provides this list of full of true crime and dark stories that he liked this last year.

Meta Monday #1

One of the more far-fetched features during the war years was the adventures of these young boys. Far-fetched, that is, until you realize the other feature in the comic is about a man who dresses up as a bat etc.

Blaming the System for Your Own Failure

Any question of how Newt Gingrich would actually be as a President was answered by his response to the news that he had failed to turn in the requisite 10,000 signatures to qualify for the Virginia ballot. Instead of it taking personal responsibility for not being able to follow the rules, something that both Mitt Romney and Ron Paul was able to do, he instead blamed it on the Virginia system itself. In the words of his campaign director, Michael Krull:

"Only a failed system excludes four out of the six major candidates seeking access to the ballot. Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates. We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice."

The funny thing about that response is not just the assumption of privilege that is a hallmark of Newt (i.e., "why should I have to follow the rules, I'm Newt"), but how the campaign makes another bad assumption about how it can be remediated.

As David Morgan writes, "They will have to get VERY aggressive: Under Virginia law (§ 24.2-529), write-in votes are not allowed on ballots in primary elections."

That's Dikkens with Two Ks

from America's Greatest Comics #3 (May 1942)

Edgar Alan Poe, the famous 19th century author of "The Ravine" and "The Gould Bug."

(for those not following this, see the Monty Python Bookshop Sketch)

Our Police at Work

Instead of beating up some peaceful OWS protestors, maybe the police should go focus on some actual crimes being committed.

From More Fun Comics #78 (April 1942)