Terminally Incoherent

Random linux tip - if you don’t feel like dealing with the regular KDE or Gnome based applications or mechanisms for taking snapshots of your screen, there is a simpler and quicker way. You can do it directly from the console:

import -window root screenshot.png

Of course screenshot.png is the filename you want to assign to your screenshot. It’s quick and easy, and can be triggered at any time. You can even put it into a script, or run a cron job that will take a snapshot of your current workspace at certain time interval.

The command above takes a snapshot of the whole desktop. If you want to just grab a rectangular region, skip the window parameter:

import screenshot.png

You cursor should change into a cross, and allow you to draw a rectangle over the desired area and save it as the file name you specify.

Note that you will need to have the imagemagick package installed. On ubuntu do:

aptitude install imagemagick

Make sure you have universe enabled in your apt sources.

I love Google Reader. Especially now, after they added the long lost search feature and taught it to count to a thousand. It is awesomer (yes, awesomer is a word, and if you don’t like that GTFO) than ever, but I still have a serious complaint about it’s functionality. This has been bothering me since I started using it, and I was always hoping they will eventually fix it. I think it’s time to speak up. The Google Reader subscription mechanism is retarded.

Let me say it this way - when I was using Bloglines the subscription bookmarklet would take me to a page which would let me preview the feed, and apply appropriate labels to it before I actually subscribed. It was easy, it was clean and it was informative.

The Google Reader bookmarklet leads you to this uninformative page:

This is especially annoying if you have Firefox set to automatically subscribe with the Reader, and you click on a RSS link while, for example, browsing some google search results. You click on a link and you get taken to this page.

Can you preview the feed? Not unless you subscribe. All the information you get from Google is the title of the feed, and some huge ass buttons that let me choose if you want to add it to your Google Reader or Google Homepage. The buttons and screenshots are the main focus, while the actual feed info is sitting in the corner, out of the way in a small font. Who designed this page? Google is usually known for good UI design, but this is ridiculous. I’ve been silently dealing with this crap for the longest time hoping they will fix it one day. But no, they insist on pushing their “home page” service on me.

Here is the thing - I do not use a home page. Who the hell uses a “home page” in the year two thousand and fucking seven? A home page is something that my grandmother uses. Unless you are still using that remote trojan exploit vector called Internet Exploder you have no business using a “home page”. Sessions are where it’s at right now. You open the browser and pick up right where you left off. Who wants to see the generic “Googel” page instead of useful set of tabs relevant to your last session? Other than my grandmother that is.

But I digress. I do not use Google Homepage and I’m sure I’m not alone here. So why does Google insist on offering me that option every time I try to subscribe? I just want to put this RSS feed in my Google Reader. Would it really be that hard to offer separate bookmarklet for the homepage and for the reader?

This way, they could offer a more useful subscription screen when if you randomly arrive at a RSS feed. Perhaps something more like the default Firefox subscription page:

This page is much better - it has a preview of the feed content and all the relevant information. All it lacks is a little drop down menu that would let you to tag your feed right there and then.

So how about it Google? Can you do this? Can you make a good subscription page for us, Google Reader users? Or should we just go back to Bloglines. I hear they implemented a nice brand new Ajax interface that is as good, if not better than yours. Make it happen!

Since documenting various email scams such as the UK National Lottery Scam, and the Lady Rita Mosley Scam turned out to be really helpful to so many people, I decided to tackle another spam that appeared in my mailbox recently. It’s the “Part Time Job Offer” thing that you may or may not heard of. Here is the lovely email I found:

Dear Sir/Ma,

I am Raphael Smith; we are Aloevera Company looking for a representative to represent the company. We have sales representatives all over the world to distribute our products. You know, that it’s not easy to start a business in a new market (being the USA). WE ARE BASED IN UK, BUT WE HAVE BEEN RECEIVING ORDERS FROM NORTHERN AMERICA. There are hundreds of ompetitors, close direct contacts between suppliers and customers and other difficulties, which impede our sales promotion.

We have decided to deliver the products upfront, it’s very risky but it should push up sales on 25 percent. Thus we need to get payments for our products as soon as possible. Unfortunately we are unable to open Bank Accounts in the United US without first registering the company name.

Let me interject here for a second. How hard is it to register a company in US? Can’t be that hard, can it? I mean, think about it: if companies like allofmp3.com were able to sell to US customers despite shaky legality of their operation, then why would it be so hard for a hand cream company to do the same? Oh, yeah - cause it’s a scam. I forgot. Carry on.

Presently with the amount of Orders we have, we cannot put them on hold. For fear of loosing the customers out rightly. Secondly we cannot cash these payments from the US soon enough, as international Checks take about 14 working days for cash to be made available. We lose about 100,000 USD of net income each month because we have money transfer delays. Your task as a
representative of the company is to coordinate payments from customers and help us with the payment process. You are not involved in any sales.

Wait… Out rightly? I think you are looking for “outright” but that would still not make much sense.

Once orders are received and sorted we deliver the product to a customer (usually through UPS).The customer receives and inspects the products. After this has been done the customer has to pay for the products. About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through Certified Checks and Money orders drawn from the United States based on the amount involved. We have decided to open this new job position for solving this problem.

Your tasks are;

1. Receive payment from Customers
2. Cash Payment at your Bank or any cashing facilities near you.
3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed
4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment to. This is done either through western union money transfer or Moneygram.This job takes only 3-7 hours per week.

You’ll have a lot of free time doing another job; you’ll get good income and regular job. But this job is very challenging and you should understand it. We are looking only for the worker who satisfies our requirements and will be an earnest assistant. We are glad to offer this job position to you. Interested in the position, kindly email back with the following details of yours:

NAME to be written on Checks or Money Orders………………………..
ADDRESS (This should be a physical address or post office addresses. where You can receive the payment sent via regular mail from the united state) CITY—————
STATE—————
ZIP CODE—————
COUNTRY—————
PHONE NUMBER (S) ———-Contact Telephone Number
(This is important Because a representative of the company will need to give you a call directly)
GENDER—————
MARITAL STATUS—————
AGE—————
NATIONALITY—————
EMAIL ADDRESS-

Urgent Attention is Imperative.

Reply your full address (dont click reply just copy this email) send reply to: aloevera_plc_raphael02@yahoo.co.uk

Regards,
Raphael Smith.
Manager
+447011135972

Sounds good eh? All you have to do is to cash some checks and wire the money overseas few times a week and you get a hefty percentage. What could go wrong? Other than spending some quality time in the federal-pound-me-in-the-ass-prison that is. Yes, boys and girls - if you take one of these “part time jobs” you are essentially laundering dirty money on behalf of your “employer”.

The checks and money orders you cash are usually earned via fraudulent Ebay auctions, illicit transfers and etc. When the person who was defrauded catches on and calls the police, the money trail will lead them directly to you. And guess who is going to get stuck with the bill?

Do not respond to these emails, and most importantly do not agree to transfer anything for anyone. In the best case scenario, you will get scammed in a classic 419 way. In the worst case, you will become an accessory to a crime and you may not only end up in debt but also suffer legal repercussions.

Some further reading:

• Payment Transfer Job explained in detail at Hoax-Slayer
• How to avoid Online Job Scams tips for job seekers.
• List of known Job Offer Spam emails - and some tips on how to avoid them
• Good blog post on this topic by a security consultant Debra Radcliff

If you got implicated in one of those things, stop everything call your Lawyer, and then call your Bank and the Police. Note that ignorance is hardly ever an excuse in our legal system, so you will likely be liable for all the transfers you already made.

This has been a public service announcement for the benefit of mentally handicapped people who fall for these scams.

Here is a question - does anyone still think Dane Cook is funny? Back in the day, when he relied mostly on very physical humor, an over the top persona and stolen jokes he was kinda amusing. I wasn’t impressed with his recent stand up specials, and his last movie was so atrocious that I heard it being described as “more effective than water boarding and sleep deprivation”. Despite this, I went to see his new movie - don’t ask me why.

Funny thing - according to IMDB Alba’s role was actually offered to Jennifer Love Hewitt who turned it down which is not very surprising judging from the end result. Though you have to wonder if the film would turn out any better if at least one of the leading actors could act just a little bit. Then again, Hewitt presently does absolutely nothing for me. She was hot in her “I Know What You Did Last Summer” period but I saw her in some of the more recent movies and she is… kinda odd looking. Alba on the other hand - still has it.

I found my new favorite website: tvtropes.org. If you like watching TV, movies, anime or comic books and you enjoy discussion plot devices and storytelling techniques they use don’t click that link, unless you have few spare hours. It will eat up hours upon hours of your time, in a classic wikipedia browsing scenario - “I’ll just look up this one term here, and I’ll stop!”. Oh and it will ruin your life forever.

The aim of that website seems to be listing, listing, categorizing, naming and explaining every single cliché moment, plot device and/or mechanic ever used on TV, in the movies, anime, comic books, literature and other media. Just to give you some examples, these range from the much hated All Just a Dream (don’t you just hate that one?), or the typical Karmic Death of a villain. It also explains peculiar character types ranging from the classic Adventurer Archaeologist (cue in Indians Jones, Lara Croft and hundreds of others) to the more obscure, but not really less prevalent Faux Action Girl - a female character who is said to posses some serious ass kicking skills by virtue or superpowers or intense combat training but never shows it, spends most time being kidnapped by the bad guys and must constantly be rescued by the male lead.

And who can forget such classics as A-Team Firing, the Imperial Stormtrooper Aim or the Dramatic Gun Cock. My personal favorite trope is probably the Enhance Button beautifully illustrated by this Bigger than Cheeses comic:

I spend last few days catching myself reading the TV Tropes wiki at various times. And every single time it turns into a click-feast 5 or 6 new tabs getting opened in the background for each page I read. These things are serioulsy like building blocks. You can take any given show, movie or story and carefully de-construct it by identifying it’s components on the TV Tropes index until nothing is left. I’m planning to link the hell out of this page during my future movie and anime reviews.

In addition to all of the above, the page can serve as a great list of entertainment titles to avoid or check out. Each trope or plot device comes with a list of examples which either use it or subvert it by putting a twist on it. The works that are perpetually listed under the silly, laughable and cliché tropes are probably total rubbish. Ones that subvert them in clever ways, might be something to put on your “to watch/read” list. Oh, and they are very good with spoilers blanking them out, and giving you a fair warning every time.