So my site had been getting hit daily by SPAM. The SPAM would come in the form of a comment to random stories. The comments would be nothing but links to porn sites or financial helps sites. So I finally tracked down about 5-7 IPs that were the ones who did this, banned them, and now it has been 3 days with no SPAM. So I think the attack has settled down a bit, but I am sure it will start again eventually, it is all a matter of time.
~david macias
irony: Getting SPAM comments in this story :–)
Story
Quote:
Cadet given 5 years for child porn
An A&M student and Corps of Cadets member was sentenced Dec. 13 to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography, said University Police Department (UPD) director Bob Wiatt.
Stephen Michael Johnston, 22, a senior psychology major from Brownsville, was arrested this March as part of a nationwide FBI sting called “Operation Candyman.” Johnston was a subscriber to the “Candyman” e-mail group in which an estimated 6,000 users exchanged images of pornography involving children as young as 18 months. Johnston had been in jail in Houston since his arrest.
UPD officers executed a search warrant and confiscated Johnston’s personal computer from his residence hall room in Fountain Hall Dec. 10, 2001, and sent it to the FBI. Wiatt said the computer was “replete with child pornography.”
Col. Rick Mallahan, assistant commandant of the Corps, said in June that Johnston intended to return to school if he did not get sentenced to prison.
Johnston was one of more than 80 individuals arrested nationwide in the Candyman sting. An East Texas man who was the leader of the e-mail pornography ring was sentenced Dec. 19 to 30 years in prison. Mark Bates, 33, of Palestine, pled guilty to distributing child pornography.
Johnston had earlier pled not guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute child pornography, which would have carried a maximum 15-year prison term and a $250,000 fine. Subscribers to the Candyman group were expected to contribute images as well as receive them.
Two other Texas men arrested in the sting were also sentenced in December. Robert Froman, 49, received 15 years, and Billy Loyd White, 46, received four years. Both are from the Houston area.Now, I am not completely absolutely sure if it is the same Stephen I knew, however here are the hints.
The Stephen Johnston I knew was:
– The same age I was
– From Brownsville, Texas
– White in a city where Hispanics make up about 92% population
– In the corp of cadets
Putting 2 and 2 together leads me to believe that this is the same guy. Now let me tell you what I remember from Stephen.
He was an extremely nice guy, really friendly, and really smart. He was one of the nerdy kids in my school, well so was I, but not as bad. He was tall and skinny with thick glasses. He was pretty quite and had a close group of friends. Never, in a million years would I have imagined something like this. You just never know.
~david macias
Irony? Perhaps, he was only 60 years old.
Yahoo Story
So if you know me, you probably are aware that Tim and I spend around 100+ man hours working on a Access database for a coverage project in the Middle Rio Grande Valley. Well, today I get a link that talks a little more about the project and that shows how much money is actually involved in this project.
Here is the story
It is nice to see a story about a project you have been involved with, but it would be nice to see some of those $2M come our way. Oh well, I learned tons about VB script and how horrible Access can be.
~david macias
New updated theme, updated logo, and a couple of new links here and there. Overall, things seem to be working properly.
Problems let me know.
~david macias
Ok, so you might have noticed the somewhat drastic change going around here. Images seem to be in their respective spot and comments can now be viewed again.
There are some bugs that I am chasing around so sit tight.
~david macias
Interesting read over at Slashdot, about Cisco having a hard coded L/P in two of their software packages.
Of course the fine folks at Slashdot have raised all sorts of issues about privacy, who can you trust, open source this, open source that, and wearing tin foil hats.
Cisco SlashdotI am a bit torn on the issue. How many calls does a company get regarding forgotten passwords or rogue employees sabotaging a company’s network?
Who can you trust with information that could potentially put at risk each and every one of your customers?
There is the pickle!
Well not really, I had to change to a default theme, because the theme I normally use Axonz, is not compatible with my version of GL. So I will be dropping the Axonz developer a line to see what’s up. Also, I am working on my own little theme, but since school and work are constantly keeping me too busy, I don’t have that much time to dedicate to this site.
~david macias
PS: to the lovely bot who spammed my site, I will find you.
Upgraded the code base of the website, looks like it was succesful. I will kep the old site for a while, just in case I missed something. Seems a little faster, I wish my host was running PHP 4.3 or atleast running PEAR, but alas no :-(
~david macias
So the internet is buzzing with rumours about our esteemed governor Rick Perry. It seems that his wife will be filling for devorce and she has hired a well known lawyer from Austin. This lawyer is known for her “go for the throat” tactics. Well, you know a divorce is quite common these days, but that is not all. Supposedly, Governor Rick Perry was found in bed with someone other than his wife. So what? Infidelity is quite common in politics today, right Bill? Well, it seems that Governor Rick Perry was not just caught messing around but messing around with another man! But, not just any man, but the Secretary of State Geoff Conner.
Now, if you have no idea why this is more significant than normal, please read a newspaper.
Now this is all rumours, but it seems that there is a lot of chatter, and no one is denying anything.
~david macias
what a tangled web we weave . . .
. . . when first we practice to deceive!