From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V10 #119 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, April 28 2004 Volume 10 : Number 119 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: another side of spam [dmw ] Re: calling Canada? [DanStark <2004.carnivore99@verizon.net>] Re: another side of spam [Gary Davis ] Re: what happened here? [fingerpuppets ] cdbaby purchases - EWS galore [Damon ] Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! ["Xenu's Sister" ] Sloan Wainwright [neal copperman ] Re: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! [Steve VanDevender] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 08:37:17 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: Re: another side of spam On Mon, 26 Apr 2004, JoAnn Whetsell wrote: > I have a sort of different question related to spam. Besides my hotmail > account, I have a small business address with its own domain name. I > know that people have been using it to send spam because I receive > "return to sender" and "undeliverable" messages from Hotmail for messages > no one here has ever sent. The addresses the messages were sent from > (and thus returned to) are fake addresses and not legitimately associated > with our domain name. I hate to look like a spammer when I'm not, and I > hate the idea of people receiving spam from an address that looks like > it's associated with our domain when it's really not. Does anyone know > how to deal with this? I'd appreciate any ideas. Thanks. JoAnn I'm in the same boat, and if you (or Nadyne, or anyone), find a better answer than I've found, I'd love to hear about it. If you're sufficiently technical, you can analyze the headers and make a pretty good guess as to where the message originated, but the catch is that you then have to find someone who cares. in one case the people hoaxing my domain appeared to be running a "bulletproof" (ie., spamfriendly) hosting service with servers based in Brazil. The whois information was bogus (in fact, I think the address was "123 bogus street"). It was clear to me that I would have to expend more resources than my small business could really afford to go after them. In the few cases where I recieved specific complaints about spam that appeared to originate from my domain, I wrote people and explained the situation, but most people just submit domains and IPs to real-time-blacklists without bothering to complain. also, from Meth: >> One of the easiest ways to avoid viruses if you run a Windoze machine is not to use Outlook (or Outlook Express). Download the free version of Eudora, and your life will be a much happier thing. >> Hey, I love Eudora, but it's not a complete answer for this particular problem -- in fact it can be configured to use Microsoft's viewer, which has more-or-less the same set of security flaws as Outlook (which, dozens of people assure me, is perfectly secure if you configure it right. Whatever.) I really, really recommend disabling the preview panel on whatever e-mail software you use, because many spam messages contain links to images that are used to tell the spammer you actually opened and read the mail. In addition, in some cases preview panels may be able to exploit security flaws in JavaScript and could potentially provide an infection vector. Finally, the free version of Eudora is ad-supported, which means you're providing advertisers with all sorts of specific targeted data about your internet behavior. For Windoze virus protection, I'm currently recommending Grisoft's AVG. There's a free version, it integrates well with Eudora, there are daily updates (maybe not in the free version) and it's been much more stable/has interfered with other things on my system less than any of the five or six other packages I evaluated. - -- d. (via Pine) the pathetic caverns: a zine - opinionated and eclectic reviews a studio - specializing in indie/rock/mobile/live/demo recording http://www.pathetic-caverns.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 09:05:51 -0400 From: DanStark <2004.carnivore99@verizon.net> Subject: Re: calling Canada? At 05:37 PM 04/26/2004, neal copperman wrote: >While we are chatting on off-topic subjects.... > >Can I make a toll free call to Canada? I have a Canadian toll free number >that starts 1-866-......, but when I dial it from phones in the US, I get >a "call can't be completed as dialed" message. Do I have to go to Canada to >make that call? Or do I have to add some sort of prefix when I dial? One way to do it is collaborate with a friend in Canada who is willing to use his or her 3-way calling as a bridge for you. You call him, he calls the toll-free number and conferences you in. That's assuming you're comfortable enough letting somebody else potentially listen in on your call. If I still lived there I'd be glad to help but I'm in the same boat as you now. I get a family member up there to help me when I need to make Canadian toll-free calls, but if you come up with a more direct solution I'd love to hear about it. Dan ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 09:29:43 -0400 From: Gary Davis Subject: Re: another side of spam At 01:55 AM 4/27/04 -0400, JoAnn wrote: > >I have a sort of different question related to spam. Besides my hotmail >account, I have a small business address with its own domain name. I >know that people have been using it to send spam because I receive >"return to sender" and "undeliverable" messages from Hotmail for messages >no one here has ever sent. The addresses the messages were sent from >(and thus returned to) are fake addresses and not legitimately associated >with our domain name. I hate to look like a spammer when I'm not, and I >hate the idea of people receiving spam from an address that looks like >it's associated with our domain when it's really not. Does anyone know >how to deal with this? I'd appreciate any ideas. Thanks. JoAnn > Welcome to the club, JoAnn! Yes, this happens to me, too. In fact, just this past weekend I received over 100 of those 'undeliverable' messages which likely means that thousands of their spam went through with my address on them. The spam, I believe, originated somewhere in Asia, likely China. It wasn't the first time! This is basically another form of identity theft - spammers using actual addresses for returns without the knowledge or permission of the address owner. But since so much of this originates from overseas, there's not a whole lot that can be done about it sadly. To most people on the net spam is just an irritant. But to us legitimate web businesses, spam is actually harmful to our business by chasing people away from doing business on the net and keeping them from signing up for legitimate, subscription-only newsletters that they might otherwise be interested in. But since they get so much crap in their e-mail every day, they avoid adding to it. The bottom line is that no one hates spammers more than legitimate on-line businesses!!! Gary ************************************************************** Gary Davis The Artist Shop The Other Road http://www.artist-shop.com artshop@artist-shop.com phone: 877-856-1158, 330-929-2056 fax:330-945-4923 INDEPENDENT PROGRESSIVE MUSIC!!! ************************************************************** Artist Shop Radio Check out the latest Artist Shop newsletter at http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 12:40:30 -0400 From: fingerpuppets Subject: Re: what happened here? one time at band camp, Collected Sounds (2345@collectedsounds.com) said: >Woj said: >>unsubscribing from ecto will not make spam go away. >I realize that I will still get spam on all my other accounts, but I created >this email address specifically for Ecto and don't use it for anything else. >The only way that a spammer could have gotten it, is to have searched the >archives...no? I'm not trying to be difficult, just trying to understand it. >I'm totally willing to be wrong! that's not the *only* way though it would be one of the easier ways. as others have pointed out, ecto is gatewayed to the usenet newsgroup fa.music.ecto and usenet is clearly one of the chief ways that spammers harvest e-mail addresses. spammers also guess e-mail addresses and 1234 and 2345 are not hard to guess (they can afford to guess wrong since it does not cost them anything to send the mail and, since they forge most of it anyway, the bounces probably won't come back to them.) there are probably some other ways, but i agree that the ecto archives and the usenet gateway would be the primary avenues for e-mail collection. i forget: is there anyone still using fa.music.ecto? i'd be much happier shutting down the gateway than cutting off access to the archives. >Oh and whomever suggested that it's available because I registered my >site...I registered the site under my Earthlink.net address (which gets >around 600 spam per week but they have a spam blocker so I never see it). well, i was more talking about the fact that your domain exists so the spammers know to try sending stuff there using guessed addresses as i mentioned above. >Woj said also: >>making the archives non-public would take me all of 5 seconds to do. >yeah, but I know lots of people like it the way it is (in fact didn't we >have this discussion awhile ago?). yup. i think it popped up a few months ago, as i recall. at the time, i polled the list about what to do and leaving things as they are won out by a margin of 2 to 1. i'm more than happy to revisit the question any time though -- ecto is not my list, it's everyone's list -- and these sorts of decisions should be made by the list, imho. >I guess what I wish is that it would hide >everyone's email address. If someone wanted to contact someone that they >read about online they'd have to join the list..or.... one things i've thought about a little is disgusing the e-mail addresses in the archives. they're all big text files so it shouldn't be too hard to turn anything that looks like an address into something that doesn't a la yahoogroups. might take a while to process all the archives, as they are quite hefty, but it's not impossible. or maybe writing a cgi script which parses a digest on the fly to disguise addresses so majordomo doesn't need to be hacked as well. also, smoe will be switching to majordomo2 at some point in time so that will have an effect on archives too -- with mj2, it becomes practical to restrict access to subscribers only and perhaps it'll do some other stuff to keep spiders from harvesting addresses. >Woj also offered: >>one thing that i'd be happy to do for any ecto subscriber is to make it >>possible for you to post from a fake e-mail address a la usenet. >That would be fabulous. Would that really work? :D sure! you're already half-way there by using the 2345 address to post to ecto. here's how it would work: 1) you subscribe to ecto using whatever address you want to receive spam at. ;) make it something that a human can parse to get your correct address but something that a harvester will think is a valid address. for example: REMOVEamyREMOVE@collectedsounds.com. 2) make sure that you only post to ecto using the fake address -- most e-mail clients will allow you to send from an alternate address. 3) anything sent to the fake address will either be spam or sent by an ecto subscriber who doesn't know enough to correct the address when replying to your post. alternatively, if you do not set up a mailbox at the fake address, spam and uncorrected replies will just go away and never bother you. it's a little bit easier for you, amy, since you have your own domain and can set up e-mail addresses at will. for other folks who don't have that luxury, get in touch and we'll work something out. woj ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 11:42:25 -0700 From: Damon Subject: cdbaby purchases - EWS galore just thought i'd mention which $5 cds i picked up at cdbaby, as i enjoyed reading and checking out others' suggestions here. KAT TERRAN: Lion and Blue i would already consider this `essential ecto' after a few listens. EMMA'S MINI: Beat Generation Mad Trick good electronica, but maybe not stunning on multiple listens. will see if it continues to grow on me. BELLEHORSE: Time Now good for certain moods, perhaps a little cheesy for others. JESSY GREENE: Blue Sky i love this cd! thanks to whoever it was that mentioned it. NEEDLEDROP: Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out very enjoyable EP, `trip-hop' i suppose. HOLLY FIGUEROA: Dream in Red haven't really had a chance to listen to this properly yet... while i was at it i also picked up 17 other cds i'd been piling up in my cart for the nine months since my last order. talk about feeding the addiction. so far i love all of what i've listened to: KEVIN BARTLETT: Near-Life Experience DEANNA KIRK: Where Are You Now? PETRACOVICH: Blue Cotton Skin THE INNOCENCE MISSION: befriended BETH BOUCHER: Mess You Up MELISSA FERRICK: Valentine Heartache LISA CERBONE: Mercy VIENNA TENG: Warm Strangers BASQUE: Radiate RACHAEL SAGE: Smashing the Serene RACHAEL SAGE: Public Record JILL TRACY: Diabolical Streak REGINA SPEKTOR: Soviet Kitsch ANDALUSIA: Such a Heavenly Eyesore HANNAH FURY: Meathook MY SCARLET LIFE: Trypnotica DAUGHTER DARLING: Sweet Shadows imagine my delight when i discovered regina spektor had snuck out a third album already. and of course since that order i've already managed to build up a sizable cart again, including kuma's _rewind_, the terami hirsch re-interpretations disc, and jenn vix's albums for $5 each plus another my scarlet life disc (they're a new discovery for me). cdbaby is evil. cdbaby is good. cdbaby is evil. cdbaby is good. (depends whether you're looking at it from the perspective of my ears or that of my credit card! ;) - -damon - -- dl+ecto@usrbin.ca: protecting my real address since 2002 (too late!) > EWS starts here! < ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:40:48 -0500 From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! That's 2 in the last 24 hours! Again it was sent to the old vickie@enteract.com address that I no longer use, but that's being forwarded to me. (rcn bought enteract and forced everyone to change their e-mail addresses, and "vickie" was already taken. Bastards). It's not from a recent "cull" which is a good thing, but I wouldn't know that if I hadn't changed addresses. Norton caught this one (it didn't catch the first one). The "Norton AntiVirus Deleted198.txt" said: "Norton AntiVirus removed the attachment: Document.vbs. The attachment was infected with the W32.Beagle.W@mm virus." Here are the headers: X-Persona: Return-Path: Received: from 207.172.4.24 (207.172.4.24 [207.172.4.24]) by ms06.mrf.mail.rcn.net (Mirapoint Messaging Server MOS 3.2.2-GA FastPath) with ESMTP id FNA42640; Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:00:59 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mx12.mrf.mail.rcn.net (mx12.mrf.mail.rcn.net [207.172.4.11]) by mr05.mrf.mail.rcn.net (MOS 3.4.4-GR) with ESMTP id GND66609; Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:00:36 -0400 (EDT) Received: from nsc66.147.101-230.newsouth.net ([66.147.101.230] helo=kmg-49bveas45wc.net) by mx12.mrf.mail.rcn.net with smtp (Exim 3.35 #4) id 1BIBUd-0006Oh-00 for vickie@enteract.com; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 15:10:15 -0400 Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 14:10:06 -0600 To: vickie@enteract.com Subject: Re: Msg reply From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="--------kfgbruhavdjirzlzudph" X-Junkmail-Status: score=6/50, host=mr05.mrf.mail.rcn.net ========= woj: one thing that i'd be happy to do for any ecto subscriber is to make it possible for you to post from a fake e-mail address a la usenet. so, your posts comes from, for example, amyREMOVEME@collectedsounds.com. that way, the harvesters will pick up the spam-protected address and send the junk to that non-existent address. and humans will see your address and know to remove the crap from your address to be able to e-mail you. == or maybe writing a cgi script which parses a digest on the fly to disguise addresses so majordomo doesn't need to be hacked as well. ======= Raises hand. Yes please. Though, I'd imagine that cracker spammers could easily write a program themselves to remove all the REMOVEMEs, so maybe something a bit more complicated. Can the same thing be done for the Ectophile's Guide? Not a complete munge (else I wouldn't have gotten the e-mail I got from Pamela Golden) but something All spammers should die horrible deaths. V ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 14:00:29 -0700 From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! Xenu's Sister writes: > That's 2 in the last 24 hours! That's nothing. In another of my accounts I get 600-1000 attempted worm deliveries a day, most of which are refused by our mail system and the rest diverted to a folder so I don't have to deal with them constantly. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 14:07:53 -0700 (PDT) From: alan Subject: Re: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! On Tue, 27 Apr 2004, Steve VanDevender wrote: > Xenu's Sister writes: > > That's 2 in the last 24 hours! > > That's nothing. In another of my accounts I get 600-1000 attempted worm > deliveries a day, most of which are refused by our mail system and the > rest diverted to a folder so I don't have to deal with them constantly. I have been seeing a strong spike in worm and virus problems in the last two days. Netsky.s is making a strong showing, as well as Beagle and a couple of others I have not seen names for. (Something using Visual Basic exploits through Outlook and a com file loader attachment disguised as an internet dating query.) Not much to do about it until people either abandon Outlook, Windows or both. Update your virus scanners. It is going to be a bumpy ride... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 14:43:39 -0700 From: Greg Bossert Subject: Re: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! On Apr 27, 2004, at 2:00 PM, Steve VanDevender wrote: > That's nothing. In another of my accounts I get 600-1000 attempted > worm > deliveries a day, most of which are refused by our mail system and the > rest diverted to a folder so I don't have to deal with them constantly. likewise. as former manager of this and several other lists, and host of a bunch of websites, and probably most importantly, one of the maintainers of several address spaces and around twenty domains, i see the sort of numbers Steve mentions for worms, along with many hundreds of source-forged bounced spam messages a day, etc. etc. many of these claim to have originated from my machines or even my personal accounts. i'm afraid that anyone such as Vickie who has been active in any way on the 'Net is going to have to expect a steady stream of bounced spam, virus/worm and other mal-messages. despite this enormous volume, i've never suffered any real damage -- just an occasional irate call from someone trying to track down the source of a virus or spam message, and those folks tend to end the conversation on friendly terms, to no detriment to my business or hobby activities. i think the lesson here is: don't panic! for the near future, at least, this stuff is the price for working with the 'Net. in some fundamental ways there are no real technical solutions to the problem, so the best approach is be undeterred and go do useful, friendly, interesting, effective things with the system, and not let it be hijacked by all the junk. fortunately, ecto and everyone on it come down convincingly on the worthwhile side... - -g - -- "i've never been afraid to change the circumstances of the world" - -- Happy Rhodes ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:45:21 -0500 From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Re: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! At 04:00 PM 4/27/2004, Steve VanDevender wrote: >Xenu's Sister writes: > > That's 2 in the last 24 hours! > >That's nothing. In another of my accounts I get 600-1000 attempted worm >deliveries a day, most of which are refused by our mail system and the >rest diverted to a folder so I don't have to deal with them constantly. That's not the point though Steve. It's the shock of the name in the From line. (I just got another one) V ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:08:10 -0700 (PDT) From: alan Subject: Re: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! On Tue, 27 Apr 2004, Xenu's Sister wrote: > At 04:00 PM 4/27/2004, Steve VanDevender wrote: > >Xenu's Sister writes: > > > That's 2 in the last 24 hours! > > > >That's nothing. In another of my accounts I get 600-1000 attempted worm > >deliveries a day, most of which are refused by our mail system and the > >rest diverted to a folder so I don't have to deal with them constantly. > > That's not the point though Steve. It's the shock of the name in the From line. > > (I just got another one) Most spam forges the From header line. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 18:35:39 -0500 From: Hooplessly Unfroody Subject: Re: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! At 05:45 PM 4/27/2004 -0500, Vickie wrote: > >That's not the point though Steve. It's the shock of the name in the From line. > >(I just got another one) All I can say is that the shock will wear off. Those who put any degree of trust in the "From:" line of their email are deluding themselves and are exactly the target that virus writers are after. As for the last set of headers you posted, there's a reasonable chance that there is a digest subscriber (or former digest subscriber) at newsouth.net who is infected and is unwittingly sending out mail as fast as their machine can. It's quite possible, however, that noone at newsouth.net has ever subscribed to ecto-digest and that they are getting their mail forwarded to that address from the address from which they subscribed to the digest. It's also possible that someone forwarded a single digest to a friend at newsouth.net. The one thing that would slow viruses down to a crawl would be for dialup/cable/dsl ISPs to not allow subscribers to operate SMTP servers off of their machines by default - there are certainly legitimate needs for such things, but 99.5% of users aren't (and don't need to be) sending mail directly from their machine. Make it a hurdle to jump - something those who know they need it can do, but something that the virus cannot do on its own. bob ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:02:31 -0700 From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Re: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! Hooplessly Unfroody writes: > The one thing that would slow viruses down to a crawl would be for > dialup/cable/dsl ISPs to not allow subscribers to operate SMTP servers off > of their machines by default - there are certainly legitimate needs for > such things, but 99.5% of users aren't (and don't need to be) sending mail > directly from their machine. Make it a hurdle to jump - something those > who know they need it can do, but something that the virus cannot do on its > own. Actually, that's backwards -- the problem is that hosts on dialup/DSL/cable ISPs are typically allowed to send mail anywhere, although just about all of their users will be sending all their legitimate mail through the ISP's mail servers since typical mail clients want to pass mail off to a permanently-connected mail server. Due to the onslaught of proxy spam and email worms, most of the mail servers I run block a lot of the common dialup/DSL/cable domains but _not_ the official customer mail servers for those domains. This rarely causes problems, what problems it does cause pale in comparison to the problems caused by worms and spam, and there's an easy workaround for the people it does cause problems for. Although I notice my own mail logs have rejected some connections from a dsl.aracnet.com host apparently used by an Ecto subscriber. Well, now he knows why, at least. This whole topic makes me feel not so much fuzzy blue as livid red, though. The Internet is truly going straight to hell these days, and most of it has to do with horrible Microsoft products that I have strictly avoided for for ten years now but which cause constant problems for me, both personally and in my job as a system administrator. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 21:17:55 -0400 From: DanStark <2004.carnivore99@verizon.net> Subject: Re: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! At 08:02 PM 04/27/2004, Steve VanDevender wrote: > The Internet is truly going straight to hell these days, and >most of it has to do with horrible Microsoft products that I have >strictly avoided for for ten years now but which cause constant problems >for me, both personally and in my job as a system administrator. Actually, it has to do with the retards who write these things and send them out. Why are you blaming Microsoft, which has done so much to advance technology over the years, when the real problem lies with the mentality of those who do everything they can to ruin it? Sure, Microsoft isn't perfect but then neither is the company that makes my car, my TV...everything has its problems. If Linux or Mac were the dominant systems on the market you would see a lot more attacks on them instead. The way to really put a damper on this blight would be to take out these virus-spewing punks in high-profile fashion, with serious jail time, high fines and civil settlements. And not just one guy every few years like the Melissa virus writer, but constant, headline-making catches week after week. But then we're too busy going after 12-year-old girls who trade songs online instead. I guess there is more financial gain for our politicians to be had from pandering to big business than in helping to solve the problems like this that affect everyone. Dan ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 22:08:55 -0400 From: Jeff Wasilko Subject: Rachael Sage/Jenny Bruce this Sunday in Boston (May 2) I'm so happy to have both Rachael Sage and Jenny Bruce performing at the same show. A bit about Rachael: Rachael Sage is a modern day renaissance woman. She's the creator of Feather Boa Pop - the psychedelic musings of a young East Village woman who tours the U.S. and Europe playing some of the most interesting music in pop and rock today! Rachael has toured with Ani DiFranco, Eric Burdon, Melissa Ferrick and played the Lilith Fair with Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega and The Pretenders. Combining timeless pop-craftsmanship with contemporary feminist sensibilities, her music has been described by THE VILLAGE VOICE as "earthiness, color and emotion...Sage has folk on the brain and piano keys for hands and is sure to put on a show sublime." You can sample Rachael's music at CD Baby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/sage5 http://cdbaby.com/cd/sage4 http://cdbaby.com/cd/sage3 http://cdbaby.com/cd/sage2 http://cdbaby.com/cd/sage And her web site is: http://rachaelsage.com/ A bit about Jenny: Jenny Bruce was a great discovery at a Joy Askew house concert about 6 or 7 years ago, and I've been a real fan of her music since then. I've been hoping to get her out of New York and into Boston for the past few years, and it's finally worked out! Frequently compared to singer/songwriters Paul Simon and Aimee Mann, native New Yorker, Jenny Bruce, is a soulfully rooted pop/folk artist. Bruce's intelligent lyrics are borne effortlessly upon her "warm thick orange" voice reminding critics and fans alike of Annie Lennox or a less "whiny" Paula Cole. A 1999 Lilith Fair Talent Search finalist, she has garnered attention from major music industry publications for her work, including Billboard Magazine. You can sample Jenny's music at CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/goodgirl http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/goodgirl2 And her web site is: http://www.goodgirl.com/ Now for the details: Sunday, May 2 2004 Join us at 4pm for snacks and drinks Mail yhc@smoe.org for reservations and directions The suggested donation is $10, which all goes to the performers. My house is just 2 blocks away from the Wakefield commuter rail station, and is just a mile from Route 128, with plenty of on-street parking. We can also arrange rides to and from the Oak Grove T stop in Malden. Upcoming concerts: June 27: Trina Hamlin and Amy Speace http://trinahamlin.com/ http://amyspeace.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 23:26:07 -0400 From: Jeff Wasilko Subject: calling Boston ectophiles! tap...tap...tap....is this thing on? are there any boston ectophiles left? Rachael and Jenny's houseconcert this weekend is at risk of being cancelled since I only have a few reservations. Please consider making a reservation. If you've never seen Rachael (or Jenny Bruce), you really should. They're both wonderful performers, and Rachael is One of Us. - -j ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 23:30:59 -0600 From: neal copperman Subject: Sloan Wainwright Last night was a wonderful show by Sloan Wainwright. She performed as a trio with Cadence Carol providing beautiful backing vocals (as well as percussion) and Stephen Murphy on guitar. Heavey emphasis on the new album, a few covers (Phil Ochs' There But For Fortune and something I should remember by George Harrison.) There were a handful of brand new songs too. Sloan was in good spirits and joyful and funny. It was a great show. Favorite local Laurianne Fiorentino opened and did an excellent set. Looking forward to Sloan's house concert tomorrow (Wednesday). For anyone who wants to stream it, Sloan and company will be on kunm (http://www.kunm.org) at 2:30 New Mexico time (that's 1:30 west coast time and 4:30 east coast time). You may even hear a bit of me while you are at it. neal np: Sloan Wainwright trio at Bar B nr: Blood of Amber - Roger Zelzany ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 22:52:28 -0700 From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Re: Another virus from "owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org" !! DanStark writes: > At 08:02 PM 04/27/2004, Steve VanDevender wrote: > > The Internet is truly going straight to hell these days, and > >most of it has to do with horrible Microsoft products that I have > >strictly avoided for for ten years now but which cause constant problems > >for me, both personally and in my job as a system administrator. > Actually, it has to do with the retards who write these things and send > them out. And those "retards" have a laughably easy time because Microsoft products are so full of implementation problems, bad features, and misdesign. Email worms exist because someone thought it would be such a great idea to let Microsoft Outlook run _absolutely any_ executable attachment that came with a message with just a click. Spyware exists because Internet Explorer will happily accept and run any piece of executable code handed to it by a web site. And in both cases such executable code gets essentially unlimited access to the entire operating system so it can do whatever it wants -- install itself as a background task, read any file, corrupt the operating system internals, you name it. > Why are you blaming Microsoft, which has done so much to advance > technology over the years, Anyone who's actually looked at the history of Microsoft closely will notice that they bought up other people's work for all of their major "innovations", from MS-DOS onward. Other people have advanced technology; Microsoft has just taken what it wanted and stomped on anything that it felt was a threat. > Sure, Microsoft isn't perfect but then neither is the company that makes my > car, my TV...everything has its problems. If Linux or Mac were the dominant > systems on the market you would see a lot more attacks on them instead. First of all, you might notice that there are actually multiple Unix and Unix-like OS implementations (including the underlying kernel of Mac OS X) out there, so they're not all susceptible to the same things all at the same time. You might also notice that those other operating systems make it _much_ harder for users to modify the operating system installation because they provide a separation of privileges and other actual security features that were thoughtfully-designed and historically well-tested. Sure, if only Linux existed there would be only Linux security attacks. But the reason there are so many Windows security attacks is not so much because there are so many Windows boxes out there but that there are so many things in the OS and applications to attack, and Microsoft is adding new problems faster than they're fixing the old ones. > The way to really put a damper on this blight would be to take out these > virus-spewing punks in high-profile fashion, with serious jail time, high > fines and civil settlements. And not just one guy every few years like the > Melissa virus writer, but constant, headline-making catches week after > week. Ha. The reason that there aren't more virus authors in jail is that it's not really possible to find them; tracing these things to their origin is even harder than stomping them out after they appear. You might note that it's been over _five years_ since Melissa appeared, and and the problem is worse than ever. Given that you can't reliably find the virus authors and it's doubtful punishing public examples would actually stop new viruses from being written, and that you can't seem to get people to not open the attachments that carry them, what would be the really logical thing to do? Remove the mail client feature that allows people to run arbitrary executable attachments so trivially, of course. Has that happened? Obviously not. ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V10 #119 ***************************