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Brian Briggs: Internet Detective I hate scammers even more than I hate Twilight (I know that's hard to believe). This morning I saved our new guests from a scammer. I'm now going by Brian Briggs: Internet Detective. I overheard Mrs. BBspot say that she needed the credit card, which in these troubled times always makes my ears perk up. I wandered over to the kitchen to see what required this precious information. She was sitting in front of our guest's computer. He is an aspiring film maker who has made a short documentary about Iran. I asked Mrs. BBspot what was up. She said he wanted to enter this film festival and had to pay an entry fee. My spidey-sense tingled. I strolled over and took a look at the screen. My first glance was too the URL. It seemed legit, but something about the page didn't look right. She went back to the site to show me what it was all about. *RED ALERT* *RED ALERT* Here is a link to the page for the "New York Short Film Festival," which raised my shields. First, the URL: mamut.net. A film festival doesn't have their own URL? The formatting on the page looks straight out of 1996. There's no way a film festival out of New York would have such a cheap looking page. Then he showed me the site that he found this "festival" on. Film Festivals News. Really, you've got to be kidding me. This page has "made for Google search" written all over it. I had seen enough. I went over to my computer to do some more investigation. First I did a whois search on mamut.net, which you can see here. The contacts for the site are all in Oslo, Norway. Some more investigation revealed that mamut.net is an ISP in Norway. So possibly, the "New York Short Film Festival" just got their hosting from Norway. Doubtful, but unlikely. With more digging I found that the festival was part of the "Annual Program Without Frontiers," which sound like someone put some words together without knowing what they meant. A search for that brings up this page. The fourth and fifth results on the page call it a scam. One of those pages here, has the down and dirty about this festival. No further investigation needed. I can't blame our new guest for falling for this. He's a film maker, and wants to get his film out there. His command of English isn't great, so the grammar mistakes on the site didn't raise any red flags. These scammers should die in a fire. Preying on people desperate to fulfill a dream. No conscience, no morals, no honor. How do they sleep at night? Mrs. BBspot was amazed by the sequence of events. That my spidey-sense was that powerful. That I could detect a scam on such scant evidence. I'm sure most of you seeing the evidence I did, would've come to the same conclusion, that's one of the benefits of being smart and spending your life on the Internet. That's all for now. Stay geeky! Filed under Musings by Brian - Fri Nov 20, 2009 @ 10:25 AM (Permalink - Discuss)The End is Near - A star like our Sun goes rogue, and balloons to 1000 times its diameter. Needless to say this would be bad for us if the Sun decides to follow suit. The Dangers of D & D - A Canadian documentary on the dangers of Dungeons and Dragons. Just so you kiddies realize that hysteria over games didn't start with GTA. Ironic Advertising - Maybe the oil companies knew about global warming a long time ago. How else could you explain this ad? Bad Idea Jeans - I'm going to have to cross "running across the backs of hippos" from my "bucket list." Anatomy of a Best Seller - An author with a top 20 NYT best seller breaks down her earnings from the book. As I figured, it's not as much as people imagine. Make Me Mighty - Insert your name and get your might equivalent. Mine was Praetor Brian Briggshawk the Savage, Scepter Wielding Barbarian Monarch Snakerider. First Language - Dad spoke only Klingon to his newborn for three years making it the kid's first language. That's dedication to geekiness, for sure. Filed under Links by Brian - Fri Nov 20, 2009 @ 12:00 AM (Permalink - Discuss)Exploding Bacteria - Scientists have engineered a bacteria to glow green in the presence of explosives. This aids in detecting land mines for easy clean up. Unfortunately, the bacteria also likes to eat your brain. The Half-Life Story - A timeline of events in the Half-Life universe. Also incorporates Portal into the story. Interesting reading. Image Swirl - Another Google Labs experiment with image search. Visualization of Empires - Some mesmerizing visualizations of the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese empires. Great Artists Steal - Well, not in this case. Proof that being original in Hollywood doesn't pay. Evolution Witnessed - Hey Kirk Cameron, are you watching this? The Google Phone - Looks like Google is tired of partnering and is going to make their own phone. Filed under Links by Brian - Thu Nov 19, 2009 @ 12:01 AM (Permalink - Discuss)Making More Money - Musical artists are making more money despite piracy, and the mainstream press is finally figuring it out. Do you believe in miracles? History of the Internet - All on one page. 8-bit l4d - What it would look like if Left 4 Dead were on the NES. CoD Spielberg Level - Have you been able to unlock this level yet? Unwinding Mandelbrot - Getting a fractal in 3d, and you know what Jonathan Coulton has to say about that. Office Space Soundboard - All your favorite Lumbergh quotes in one convenient spot. More Than Meets the Eye - The furniture you need if you're a Transformers fan. Filed under Links by Brian - Wed Nov 18, 2009 @ 12:00 AM (Permalink - Discuss)
Ditching DoubleTwist, Rafting on the River I ditched DoubleTwist for syncing music on my Pre, because it relied on iTunes for playlist support. Instead I started just dragging and dropping files onto my phone. Tiring of that I tried out the J. River Media Center, which works really well. I just have to do some search and replace on playlists (thinking of automating that myself with some kind of script), but other than that it syncs fine. It also appears to be a pretty decent music player as well with all the things you'd expect from a modern jukebox. This weekend we had book club, and my daughter and I led the discussion on Fahrenheit 451. It's the token sci-fi book thrown in for my enjoyment. We've got Sense and Sensibility and Rebecca coming up soon to counterbalance it. Most of the girls found the book depressing, but understood the messages Bradbury was trying to impart. I enjoyed reading it for the second time. It was long enough ago that I could find some surprises in the text. This afternoon was rushed, so I wrote tomorrow's story on my Pre while waiting for my daughter at the dentist's office. Typing long passages of text on the small keyboard didn't bother me at all. Unfortunately, the only way I had to create a document was to compose a Gmail message, but given that I had to email it to myself anyway that wasn't too bad. It would be nice for Google Docs to work on it. That's all for now. Stay geeky! Filed under Musings by Brian - Tue Nov 17, 2009 @ 5:44 PM (Permalink - Discuss)A Breach Ain't One - A little bit of Next Gen humor for you. Mega Sites - These sites use twice as much bandwidth as Facebook, and it's possible you've never heard of them. Micro Black Holes - Don't worry, the link is safe for work. Don't Shake - In the future we will have no contact with other humans. In this way I'm cutting edge. The 7 GHz Phenom - You can get a lot of things done when you use liquid helium. Social Engineering - Five social engineering strategies to scam you. Of course, since most geeks and nerds aren't very social it's hard to scam them. Distributed Image - The most distributed image, and how the landscape looks today. Filed under Links by Brian - Tue Nov 17, 2009 @ 12:00 AM (Permalink - Discuss)Thanks to a kind BBspotter, I have received my invite to Google Wave. If you're just starting with Google Wave then a free online book called The Complete Guide to Google Wave has been posted by Lifehacker friends Gina Trapani and Adam Pash. I spent an hour or so this morning getting myself familiar with it, and luckily I already have a few friends on there that have walked me through a few of the basics. The two uses for it that immediately jump out at me, are story collaboration for BBspot and for trip planning with a friend. I'm sure there will be more as I dive deeper into Wave. I don't have any invites to hand out yet, but hopefully that will change soon. That's all for now. Stay geeky! Filed under Musings by Brian - Mon Nov 16, 2009 @ 10:22 AM (Permalink - Discuss)Twitter Responds - A spokesman from Twitter responds to common complaints about the service. 2nd TOS Pilot - A second TOS pilot unearthed by German. This time the Nazis win. MPAA Awesomeness - Not! If you're wondering why I write stories critical of the MPAA, here's a story that will help you understand. Ditching Cable - Here are some breaking developments that will help you ditch cable TV if you haven't already. Moon Water - NASA has already struck a deal with Coca Cola to bottle the water and sell it for lots of money back on Earth. Top of the World - Video from the top of the tallest building in the world. Snow Globes - Are enemies of the state. Admit it, I just blew your mind. Filed under Links by Brian - Mon Nov 16, 2009 @ 12:00 AM (Permalink - Discuss)Jaws X - I think we all knew this. Great whites come closer to shore more often than we suspected, and by "we" I mean people who have never seen Jaws or any of its sequels. Sudo Patented - Those wacky funsters over at Microsoft are up to their intellectual property tricks again. I wonder if there's any prior art for this one? Geeky Laws - 10 geeky laws that should exist, but don't except now they do because someone just made them up. (via GeekPress) Theme Park Maps - A whole bunch of theme park maps from all over. Rock vs. Oil - The decline of rock music corresponds to the drop in oil production. Coincidence? I think not. New Pratchett - Since I'm currently listening to Wyrd Sisters, I thought it would be appropriate to inform you of the new Terry Pratchett Discworld novel hitting the stores. YouTube Doubler - Put any two videos you want side by side. Filed under Links by Brian - Fri Nov 13, 2009 @ 12:00 AM (Permalink - Discuss)Programming Exercises - Classic programming exercises to help you learn how to code. Go - OK, this is getting ridiculous. Google is releasing an open source programming language, a cross between Python and C++. Hey, Google can you be a bit more subtle about taking over the world? Powerful Vampires - The most powerful vampire of all is of course, Count Chocula. All You Can Eat - A guide to getting the most from all you can eat buffets, because America isn't fat enough. OS Calculator - Meatspace calculators based on calculators found in Windows and OSX. Solar Sail - At least someone is researching into traveling to the other stars. Lunar Landing - Giant leap for mankind as seen from space. Filed under Links by Brian - Thu Nov 12, 2009 @ 12:00 AM (Permalink - Discuss) Previous 10 >> |
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