Concept of Self

I feel like the act of blogging is deeply personal.
Some folks manage to make it "all about the (food/art/sport/you-name-it)," but so often the author's personality intrudes, or in many cases a blog's entire existence is simply a shout into the void, "Ego sum!" or something like that... my Latin is pretty rusty.

It's been awhile since I've posted to this blog, although the technical wonders and parenting moments I tend to write about still abound. I'm working on an exhaustive list of automotive gas mileages (and electric ranges and efficiency ratings) that so far seems oddly lacking from the online world, but that's a pretty big project. My boy would like to think he's four years old already -- he snatched a candle saying as much out of the display while cutely pushing his shopping cart in our local grocery store (pic). Also, he knows more about engineering and the sciences than I probably did at ten, or twenty for some things. From cooking to simple levers and flying birds, I do what I can to coach the boy, and the rest he learns often as not from tearing things apart. 

Like father, like son I guess.

Obviously I think he's great.
OK, end ADDled cute kid moment (I'll restrain myself from including any pictures of good old Howie Dog) and back to talking about myself, which is the point of this post.

Anyone who's ever Googled themselves only to discover, to their horror, that DOPPELGANGERS HAVE STOLEN THEIR IDENTITIES probably knows what I'm talking about here. If you scope out the new "about me" bar on the right side of this page, you may notice that the current (7/20/2013) blurb is essentially a rant about people who aren't me.

According to the wonders of the internet, there's also a Matthew Wise in Colorado scamming single women for child support, the retired baseball player who spent just enough time in the show to snatch the Matt_Wise wikipedia entry, and even someone else who has the gall to participate in triathlons (although if you may note, I'm the one who's usually in the top ten percent of finishers ;) http://athlinks.com/racer/results/151486255).

Sorry to brag; it's just I feel so insecure. Honestly, I may not be the most important "me" out there -- maybe the Maryland psychologist has done some good work, or perhaps one of the people behind the 142 other hits on LinkedIn has done something of greater note than almost finish a Bachelor's degree in English.

It's kind of sobering; maybe I'll have to start that stand-up career or enter astronaut school after all.

"SQL Injection" Viruses Still Going Strong

Sometimes called "mass-injection attacks," this class of internet-based computer attack appears to be responsible for the recent crippling of St. Edward's University's "New Literati" online literary adventure. Although not technically a "virus" (though certainly malware), this type of computer bug infects web servers, from which it tries to exploit user traffic through various means, often redirecting users to other malicious websites that may try to trick them (via misleading pop-up alerts or various scare tactics) into downloading more directly exploitative software like fake Anti-Virus platforms. How the New Literati website became compromised is not yet entirely clear, but blogs and other web presences that are easily modifiable by relatively amateur computer users are frequent victims of such attacks. Naive data processing in basic webpage authoring tools is one way hackers gain access, where malicious code "escapes" its proper place in a computer and can gain access to system processes, as in this somewhat humorous attempt:

Hackers don't usually target traffic cameras, though; one of the last big outbreaks was the so-called LizaMoon attack in the spring of 2011, where possibly millions of websites were infected (PCWorld), and users of those websites were bounced around the internet (often unknowingly, in hidden website frames or invisible pop-up windows) until they were presented with this official-seeming notice:

And shortly invited (read: "extorted") to purchase a "solution":

Being hacked, scammed, or even targeted can be scary, but trusting random pop-ups is probably not the best way to soothe your fears. So watch your virtual backs, keep your anti-virus software up to date, but above all surf responsibly. (No (sorry), you are NOT the 1,000,000th visitor, nor have you won a prize. And pressing "Escape" is usually the best way to close an unwelcome faked system alert.)