Blog #2 ... woo-hoo

- Yesterday while cooking a burger at the townhouse, I set off the smoke alarm. Oh man, that is the loudest, most piercing, annoying, make your brain explode sound I have ever heard in my life. And the only way to stop it is to let the smoke dissipate and air out with time. Of course, I didn't figure out this fact until after I spent a good 10 minutes of eardrum-throbbing fun, trying to push the one button there on the detector (which I guess is only for you to test if it works, not to shut it off). Finally, Jason (one of my roommates) opened all the windows and fanned the detector until it stopped. But my ears were still ringing for a couple hours afterwards. Also, the episode prevented me from working out. >:-O

- I've been reading some interesting articles about spam. It seems there is a battle going on between spammers and anti-spammers, with each one trying to outdo the other in creativity. Some of the methods are kind of amusing (at least to me). For example, most spammers rely on hijacking other people's unprotected email servers to send out mass mailings, so they can hide their own address. Well, now there is an anti-spam campaign to flood the internet with "honeypots", which are basically fake unprotected email servers that fool spammers into thinking their mass mailings are sent, when they actually go nowhere. The hope is that spammers will realize they are wasting their time, give up and find a real job. (It's similar to record companies flooding Kazaa with fake songs to frustrate users into just buying the CD)

Then there is this "challenge-response" idea that some ISPs are adopting. It blocks all emails from being sent to your inbox, making the sender first prove that they are human by clicking on a link and typing the answer to a simple question like "What is the 2nd month of the year?" or something. So this would deter spammers because it's impractical to have to do something like that for every message you send out in mass. I thought this idea was guaranteed to be effective, but I guess many experts don't. Apparently, it will clog up server space with all these challenge-response emails bouncing back and forth, while also blocking some legitimate messages, like auto-generated receipts from ordering off Amazon.com for example. Also, they say spammers will be able to find ways around the system, and then the whole thing will be even worse because they can make their emails look like these challenge response emails. Then when you click on the link to prove you're human, it takes you to their porn site instead. When I read that, I was like wow, they are so clever. If only they used their ingenuity for a good cause.

It amazes me how much effort is being put into this spam war on both sides. There must be a lot of money at stake here. Personally, I think the best way to stop spam is if everybody would just decide to never click on any of the ads under any circumstances. But obviously, some stupid people still are, and that is why spammers still do what they do. So I guess the only way to stop them now is to hunt down each spammer, go to his house and kick him in the nuts.

- The White Sox are quietly having one of the most underachieving years ever, making me a very miserable fan. Our division is probably the weakest in baseball, yet we are sitting in 3rd place with a record under .500. We got supposedly two ace pitchers on our staff in Buerhle and Colon, but they are both being outperformed by our #3 pitcher. And even despite the huge gift from heaven that was Esteban Loaiza, our team is a joke. I looked at the hitting stats a couple days ago and I don't think anyone in the lineup is batting over .280. Instead we have Konerko flirting with .200, Valentin, Crede not much better. Magglio is way below All-Star level production, to say the least, and Frank Thomas had to go on a "hot streak" to get the decent stats he has. >:-O

- I just read the latest Sports Guy column on ESPN Page 2, and he pointed out that Simon from the Real World looks like Keith Van Horn. That had me laughing at my desk for a long time, can't believe I didn't pick up on that one earlier.

Education Fair

Coming next week to our site here in NG-Rolling Meadows will be an "Education Fair", where a bunch of local schools will show up with information on their graduate programs. Places like Purdue, Northwestern, DePaul, and IIT are gonna be there to talk to us about opportunities for continuing education.

For the past 3 or 4 years, I've gone to nothing but job fairs, looking for a place to start my career. I've gotten used to handing out resumes and trying to explain to HR reps or interviewers what I have to offer to their company and why they should hire me. Now, I'm less than a year into career life, and already I'm being pointed back to school. A weird feeling.

I think I'm gonna pass on this education fair thing for now, but maybe next year I'll go. It might be nice for once to be the one asking the question: "What do you have to offer me?". "Why should I choose your program?"