Have Laptop Will Travel

MP3s now used for spam

Originally posted on October 19, 2007 @ 5:49 pm

Spammers are a wily lot. They will do anything just to send their junk on our inboxes. Veteran computer users can actually see the evolution of spam over the years as these people try to find new ways to send messages to the unsuspecting inboxes of internet users all over the world.

With broadband becoming the de riguer connection in many countries, file size is not a hindrance anymore for spammers. Because of this they are now employing the otherwise harmless mp3 format as a method of delivering their message. The growing practice now is for spammers to mass email MP3 files where the “spam” message is embedded as audio. It may sound high-tech, but really, it’s just another way to get around the spam filters of email inboxes.

The sizes of these files are larger than the usual spam you would receive — anywhere from 85kb to 147kb are used up. Additionally, the subject line of these emails are usually empty or may just contain Fwd:,  Re: or the filename of the MP3. Some may use more devious ways of making you open the file by using the names of famous bands or indicate that it is a ringtone.

I hope that this practice won’t be adopted by spammers though because this is going to potentially be a big thorn for us internet and email users.

Eudora goes open source

Originally posted on September 10, 2007 @ 11:54 pm

one of the first popular email clients was Eudora. Talk about Eudora and visions of the internet in its infancy come to mind. It’s because it was one of the pioneers and acknowledged favorites during the first few years of the technology. Eudora and Netscape Navigator are technological relics that forms a snapshot of the internet at a particular period of time.

Of course, Eudora is already way past its popularity. Any mention of the brand now will most likely just show the age of the listener rather than his technological adeptness. Even though it enjoys a strong fan base and is consistently getting good reviews, the fact is that it just could not compete in terms of popularity and sales with the products Microsoft was putting out. But it looks like it is getting a new lease on life. Qualcomm, Inc., after deciding to stop selling Eudora as a product last May, decided to donate it to the open source community.  What this means is that anyone can now download the product and use it for free. What’s more, the source code for the software will now be made available to the public, allowing them to tweak the software or make additions for distribution to other users.

This is a great way of extending the life of software and also spurs the creativity of the open source community. I hope this move becomes an example to other software companies to do the same thing with their products.

Four Hour Work Week In Review

Originally posted on July 9, 2007 @ 11:10 pm

There has been a lot of buzz about the Four Hour Work Week. And to be honest I blew it off at the beginning and I still blow off a lot of it. But I’m trying my best to implement various things that I find useful. Mostly becoming more organized and more diligent to pursue hobbies outside of ‘work’ have become the center of my focus.

The Four Hour Work Week is a must read for anyone who wishes to travel and work on the road. Some of the resources Tim Ferris shares in the book are just amazing. My personal favorite is GetFriday. You can’t go wrong with a virtual assistant or two who can juggle two or three hats and focus on helping you build your business(es).

One of the things I have been pondering lately is the need to be always connected. I see a lot of people out there are getting iPhones, and I realized we are creating more and more of a society that is always online. And always reachable. You know what?

There is a good part of the time I just don’t want to be reachable. I want to be curled up listening to music and goofing around in Photoshop. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have a truck load of Moleskines and a walking stick than an iPhone and an always on world.