Uh-oh - If you are running certain extensions with Firefox, you could be vulnerable to hacking. According to the story below, the vulnerablity comes into play in a wireless environment or if your wired router still has the default passwords.

Threat Level - Wired Blogs: "some of the most popular of those extensions have created a security hole so wide even a newbie AOL hacker could find it and millions of Firefox users are at risk of having their browsers hijacked."

Well, Google is finally cracking down on MFAs and the federales are busting spammers.. Life is starting to look rosier

What I don't get in the article is that he sent tens of millions of spams and the prosecutors are trying to seize 770k. For some reason, that doesn't seem like a lot of profit considering how much spam he is accused of sending.

If he's found guilty and serves the max time, he will be 94 when he gets out... It's hard to feel sorry for anyone like that when I think about all the time wasted with spam clutter in my inbox...

US Internet 'Spam King' arrested - Yahoo! News: "SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - US prosecutors said they captured on Wednesday a nefarious Internet marketer responsible so much junk e-mail they called him 'Spam King.'
Robert Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle, Washington" ...

the British newspaper, the Daily Mail, has an article linking laptop use to back and neck problems. When you think about it, most desktops today have the screen at the proper level, the keyboard at the proper level, wrist pads for the keyboard and mouse, and in many cases ergonomic keyboards.

Quite often, when we use our laptops, we're using them for convenience and are not sitting at a proper desk. I attended a presentation recently by a local chiropractor who stressed and demonstrated the importance of the proper alignment of your body.

I don't plan to give up the use of my laptop. However I will pay attention to the way I am using it over longer periods of time.


Laptops are crippling millions with back problems the Daily Mail: "Booming sales of laptops have led to a surge in the number of computer users with back and muscle problems, experts have warned.
Girls as young as 12 are being diagnosed with nerve damage caused by slouching over screens, a group of leading chiropractors said.

Millions of others are at risk of 'irretrievable damage' to their spines"

This will be an interesting one to watch... Philadelphia, Pa is implementing a massive wireless internet project. I'm not really sure I would want the government involved with, or as, my isp. ... especially Philadelphia's government..

Some random thoughts

* I wonder how this will affect other ISPs in the area.
* Verizon is stringing a lot of fiber in the Philly area. For those who can afford the difference between $20 and Verizon's rates there is no comparison in speed. FIOS wins hands down.
* Security will be an issue. With most a one of the larger US cities going wireless, it will be interesting to see if all of the personal data over the air stays private and personal.
* With all the microwave radiation, you will probably be able to re-heat your philly cheesesteak or soft pretzel by holding it outside your window..

Philadelphia Wireless Internet Project Advances - News and Analysis by PC Magazine: "
Philadelphia Wireless Internet"

There is a pretty intense discussion happening at webmasterworld.com right now. Apparently some webmasters who were practicing arbitrage received notices from google that their accounts would be terminated effective June 1, 2007.

AdSense Disabling Arbitrage Accounts by June 1st - Part 2

Arbitrage is the practice of buying low priced ads (adwords etc), driving people to sites or pages, and trying to get them to click on higher priced ads. Publishers of content sites (Sites that have original content, not sites that are scraping content or are simply link farms) have been complaining that the MFA sites have been ruining the content network.

MFA sites (Made for adsense) are typically sites that:
* have no original content
* scrape content from other sites
* have mostly ads above the fold
* have no internal navigation forcing you to hit the back button or click on an ad to leave the site.
* Offer very little to the surfer other than a bunch of ads

Some of the issues are:
* Advertisers have been avoiding the content network in Adsense because of the quality of some of the sites. * Publishers are frustrated at seeing their content scraped to provide 'content' for MFAs
* Publishers are frustrated at seeing penny clicks. They are also tired of having to filter out the MFAs to prevent them from advertising on their sites.
* Having visitors to your site end up on an MFA tends to frustrate them and therefore (1) cause them to not revisit your site and (2) become leery of clicking on ads.

By the way, Arbitrage was big business. A lot of the publishers who received the banning notice reported making upwards of 10k US to 70kUS PER MONTH..

It will be interesting to see what happens in June. If Google is truly getting rid of the MFAs then publishers should start to see increased revenues if advertisers regain faith in the content network.