JonWestfall.Com

Automation is pretty crazy. As I type this, I’m unsure what is actually going to happen when I hit Publish. You see, up until a week ago, I had a pretty jury rigged system where I posted something to a Joomla based CMS that was rather clunky, and then I twittered about it, and that twitter post went to my facebook status. Along the way a component for Joomla would download entries from my other blogs and Pocket PC Thoughts and dump them into the database. This seemed to work out pretty well, but I thought perhaps a more up-to-date system would be nice. Especially with all the changes coming up in the next few months, why not have a better site?
So I’m typing this in the backend of WordPress (Being on a Linux laptop I’m unable to use Windows Live Writer or Word right now), and I have a bunch of gizmos turned on to do various things. First of all, I’m tagging this with a Twitter tag, which I THINK is supposed to trigger some plugin I have to push this out to Twitter and a bunch of other websites (e.g. statuses on Facebook, Myspace, etc..). I’m not sure if it will work. At the same time, the same plugin should push this out as a note on Facebook, but who knows if it will (If you’re reading this there, then I guess it worked).

Now Twitter poses a bit of a problem for me because when this publishes out, I don’t want it sucked back in. Why would it do that? Well, my status updates need to be archived for glory on JonWestfall.Com, and if my status update advertises my blog item and then the status update actually upstages the blog item, it just creates a self-referential storm of junk on the homepage. So I hopefully found a solution using Yahoo! Pipes that should block from my twitter feed any items with [JonWestfall.Com] in them from EVER appearing back on the homepage. Ugh.

If this sounds confusing, that’s because it really is. All I want is everything I write to A) appear on JonWestfall.Com in some form and B) my friends to know I’ve posted something (in whatever medium they’re using or accessing). I guess those two are mutually exclusive to some extent. So what will happen when I press “Publish”? Who knows, but hopefully something good.

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071130/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_italy_mafia_arrest

Sometimes life just imitates art WAY too eerily…

Red Sox being Red Sox not enough in October
Red Sox being Red Sox not enough in October
He was proud. He was pleased. He was a peacock. He was behind 7-3. He and his Boston Red Sox were still well on their way to a 3-1 American League championship series deficit to the Indians….Celebrating and taunting a solo shot to bring your team within four? This is what they call “Manny being Manny.” There was a reasonable chance he didn’t even know the score or situation when he hit it.
I’m not down on Manny in this post – I think he’s been an excellent player and enjoy a bit of flair (a term the announcers applied, not me in my office-space mind). However it was quite odd to see him admire a home run that, in the end, didn’t mean anything.
Game 5 should be interesting…

lifehacker.com/software/feeds/geek-to-live–create-your-master-feed-with-yahoo-pipes-235726.php

LifeHacker has a great write-up on Yahoo! Pipes, a great new service that lets you take multiple RSS feeds and integrate, filter, truncate, and do other neat things to create a customized “pipe” or channel. I use it to take multiple RSS feeds and make them into one. Quite Cool Stuff!

• TrendMicro’s Online Virus Scanner (Housecall)
  • housecall.trendmicro.com
• John Savill’s FAQ For Windows
  • www.windowsitpro.com/windowsnt20002003faq/
• SpyBot Search & Destroy
  • spybot.safer-networking.de/en/index.html
• LavaSoft (Makers of Ad-aware)     www.lavasoft.de/
• Sites Good For Hardware Purchasing
  • www.nextag.com (Comparison Shopping)
  • www.froogle.com (Comparison Shopping)
  • www.pricewatch.com (Comparison Shopping)
  • www.tigerdirect.com (Fairly Good Deals, Nice Selection)
  • www.cdw.com (Selection Great, Prices Not – but if you need it…)
  • www.amazon.com (Fairly Good Selection)
  • www.slickdeals.net (Some great deals!)
    
• Adware, Spyware, and other unwanted “malware” – and how to remove them
  • www.cexx.org/adware.htm
• Download.com – Find Interesting Software     www.download.com
• Bootdisk.com – Will Make bootable floppys / CDs you can use for troubleshooting or new operating system installations    www.bootdisk.com
• Experts-Exchange.com    www.experts-exchange.com/
• SourceForge.net (Open Source (i.e. Free) Software for a variety of tasks)
  • www.sourceforge.net
• MCSE World by Daniel Petri   www.petri.co.il/
  • Forget A Windows Administrator Password? www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
  • How To Install Windows XP: www.petri.co.il/install_windows_xp_pro.htm
• Emergency Boot CD’s (These can be used to boot into diagnostic and recovery tools)
  • ebcd.pcministry.com/
• Burn It & Boot It Linux Distributions (Can be fun to play with, and useful)
  • www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=102087&redir=1
• Broadband Forums – Troubleshooting & Overall Internet Support
  • www.broadbandreports.com/forums/all
• Linux Resources (If you’re interested in playing with it)
  • www.linuxiso.org
  • www.webmin.com
• Windows NT / 2000 / 2003 / XP Admin Knowledge Base
  • www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/
• Microsoft Support   support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
• Google (Use Direct Quotes and Advanced Search to get best results)
  • www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
• LogMeIn.com – Remote System Administration for Free or Reasonable Prices
  • www.logmein.com
• Sites for Fun & Relaxation
  • www.snopes.com (Also a good virus hoax info site)
  • www.bash.org (Humorous IRC / IM Quotes)
  • www.fark.com (Humorous News Items From Around the Web)
  • www.pocketpcthoughts.com (Interested in mobile devices?)
  • www.imdb.com (Internet Movie Database – Great Time Waster)
  • www.hackaday.com (Various hacks & mods, great time wasting here as well!)
  • www.techcomedy.com (Comic Relief for those of us in IT)

  www.trillian.cc (The Best Instant Messenger Client on the Web – Nix the ads, bulk, and junk of AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo!)

• The Hipster PDA (For those of you who don't need any more)

Ultimate Link Listing Compiled by Jon Westfall (jon@jonwestfall.com) Distribute as you like, yet please keep this note on here so that people may send me more great links!

(more…)

• TrendMicro’s Online Virus Scanner (Housecall)
  • housecall.trendmicro.com
• John Savill’s FAQ For Windows
  • www.windowsitpro.com/windowsnt20002003faq/
• SpyBot Search & Destroy
  • spybot.safer-networking.de/en/index.html
• LavaSoft (Makers of Ad-aware)     www.lavasoft.de/
• Sites Good For Hardware Purchasing
  • www.nextag.com (Comparison Shopping)
  • www.froogle.com (Comparison Shopping)
  • www.pricewatch.com (Comparison Shopping)
  • www.tigerdirect.com (Fairly Good Deals, Nice Selection)
  • www.cdw.com (Selection Great, Prices Not – but if you need it…)
  • www.amazon.com (Fairly Good Selection)
  • www.slickdeals.net (Some great deals!)
    
• Adware, Spyware, and other unwanted “malware” – and how to remove them
  • www.cexx.org/adware.htm
• Download.com – Find Interesting Software     www.download.com
• Bootdisk.com – Will Make bootable floppys / CDs you can use for troubleshooting or new operating system installations    www.bootdisk.com
• Experts-Exchange.com    www.experts-exchange.com/
• SourceForge.net (Open Source (i.e. Free) Software for a variety of tasks)
  • www.sourceforge.net
• MCSE World by Daniel Petri   www.petri.co.il/
  • Forget A Windows Administrator Password? www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
  • How To Install Windows XP: www.petri.co.il/install_windows_xp_pro.htm
• Emergency Boot CD’s (These can be used to boot into diagnostic and recovery tools)
  • ebcd.pcministry.com/
• Burn It & Boot It Linux Distributions (Can be fun to play with, and useful)
  • www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=102087&redir=1
• Broadband Forums – Troubleshooting & Overall Internet Support
  • www.broadbandreports.com/forums/all
• Linux Resources (If you’re interested in playing with it)
  • www.linuxiso.org
  • www.webmin.com
• Windows NT / 2000 / 2003 / XP Admin Knowledge Base
  • www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/
• Microsoft Support   support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
• Google (Use Direct Quotes and Advanced Search to get best results)
  • www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
• LogMeIn.com – Remote System Administration for Free or Reasonable Prices
  • www.logmein.com
• Sites for Fun & Relaxation
  • www.snopes.com (Also a good virus hoax info site)
  • www.bash.org (Humorous IRC / IM Quotes)
  • www.fark.com (Humorous News Items From Around the Web)
  • www.pocketpcthoughts.com (Interested in mobile devices?)
  • www.imdb.com (Internet Movie Database – Great Time Waster)
  • www.hackaday.com (Various hacks & mods, great time wasting here as well!)
  • www.techcomedy.com (Comic Relief for those of us in IT)

  www.trillian.cc (The Best Instant Messenger Client on the Web – Nix the ads, bulk, and junk of AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo!)

• The Hipster PDA (For those of you who don't need any more)

Ultimate Link Listing Compiled by Jon Westfall (jon@jonwestfall.com) Distribute as you like, yet please keep this note on here so that people may send me more great links!

(more…)

One of the most annoying plagues to hit the Internet in the past few years (aside from angst-ridden teenagers on MySpace, YouTube, etc…) is unsolicited commercial email advertising (i.e. SPAM). One argument I hear made time and time again is that the reason SPAM persists is that it works. People actually buy things as a result of Spam ridden emails, and this small (but significant) percentage of the population are responsible for SPAM’s prevelance.

First of all, I don’t blame my fellow man for SPAM in my inbox. I blame greedy sons-and-daughters-of-a-***** that actually run the spamming enterprises. From small time operators to those who command massive amounts of zombie servers that spend all their lives pumping out email (And whatever else their legitimate owners think they are doing). But does SPAM work?

Obviously we can’t look at the sale of Viagra (or Viz AGR@) to determine this. But perhaps their is an indicator.

Recently, a round of SPAM has been spotted as a result of a botnet of zombie computers. This SPAM advertises stocks as “hot” and tries to get people to purchase them. The following stocks are “favorites” of the emails:

* China YouTV Corporation (CYTV)

* CDYV

* PPTL

So I figured I’d run stock quotes on those symbols and see how they’ve been doing over the last 90 days.

PPTL is rather new on the market – here’s it’s graph over the past 5 days that the SPAM has been making the rounds (courtsey of Yahoo!)

The last trade was for $0.01

CDYV is doing a bit lower lately as well.

It hovers around $0.05 – $0.10

And CYTV, the one I hear about ALL THE TIME is doing…

Markedly better since the spam emails hit. It went from around $0.20 to $1.

Now, why is this. Well, a number of things I can think of:

1. People actually believe the email, feel the stock is HOT and buy it.
2. People don’t believe the email but figure that enough other people will, so they buy it.
3. People notice that #1′s and #2′s of the world are buying, so they buy.

So in the end, I reach the conclusion that… yes… spam does work. Ugh! I guess if you’re a day trader, keep an eye on these three stocks. I will be interested, however, to see how they do after spam filters adapt to them.

Man at Gun Show Shoots Himeself in Bathroom

“Faribault Police Sgt. Richard Larson said the 59-year-old man shot himself while removing his gun from a hook in a bathroom stall while attending the 31st annual Faribault Rifle and Pistol Club gun show on Sunday morning.”
Damn Enchiladas… guess i’ll duck in here and take care of business… gotta put my loaded rifle on the coat hook here but darn it, there ain’t no place to hang from ‘cept the trigger…
Seriously, do people think that and figure, ah, what could go wrong?

Stupidity
Ok, so if the play calls for smoking, even the most vehement anti-smoking person must admit that this is a really stupid time to complain. It’s not like the entire cast lit up, it’s not like the audience did, etc.. Ugh.

Evolution vote nears, scientists fight back – Yahoo! News
Evolutionary theory can explain a lot. However, it is a theory. Double stupidity here: It’s stupid to blatently force a theory on people, and it’s really stupid to NOT encourage people to question theories like they are handed down from the mouth of the “intelligent designer” (I hate that term… why can’t we say ‘god’ – It isn’t God (Big G – Christian), it’s little g. Any religion I know of that has a supreme being refers to that person as ‘god’… ugh…) himself.
Theories can NEVER be proven – they can only have support added to them or removed from them. They should ALWAYS be questioned. A scientific theory that is not able to be disproved is NOT a scientific theory. This is theory of science 101 here…