Arthur got bumped this morning for a timely interview about the end of combat forces in Iraq. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything about the reschedule of this interview.

This coming Thursday, 2 September, my friend Arthur Anderson will be in conversation with my friend Bob Edwards on his XM Satellite Radio show. (Geez, dude, namedrop much?) From the show’s promo:

In the film Me and Orson Welles, Zac Efron plays a young actor who stumbles into the role of Lucius in the 1937 Broadway production of Julius Caesar. The young man actually cast in the role was Arthur Anderson. Now eighty-eight years old, Anderson went on to have a long career in radio and television, probably best-known as the voice of the Lucky Charms leprechaun. Anderson is the author of Let’s Pretend and the Golden Age of Radio, and most recently, An Actor’s Odyssey: Orson Welles to Lucky the Leprechaun.

Air times for the show are, in eastern daylight time, 8 am, 9 am, 10 am, 3 pm, 8 pm, 10 pm, and Friday 4 am and 9 pm.

If you aren’t a subscriber to XM Satellite Radio or Sirius Satellite Radio with the Best of XM package, you can still hear The Bob Edwards Show on the on-line service (better sound quality than from the satellites anyway) by signing up for a free trial.

There is an issue that is becoming more acute every day, it seems…the OTR Digest, and other addresses on our server, are being spammed by - no, seriously - actual subscribers.

These users, generally with Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN/Hotmail addresses, have had their accounts hijacked by spammers primarily because of easily-guessed passwords. But the results are seriously bothersome; email coming directly from the subscribers’ accounts, what the server assumes are legitimate messages but are actually mails with spam links in them, are entering the Digest and other mailing lists with alarming regularity. I have been struggling with how to handle this, trying first to alert the users with information on the hijack and suggestions to fix, but I found this more and more work every week. Yet I need to protect the mailing lists from this garbage…even though the real subscriber is technically innocent, their account is being used to send multiple spam emails into our machines targeted to our lists.

So I am currently taking a more draconian approach. First, the user’s address is removed from the Digest subscriber list as soon as the first spam email is found (I say “first” because until the problem is fixed the hijackers continue to send spam out of the account to all addresses in the user’s address book) - hopefully, after not receiving an issue or three the subscriber will realize something is amiss…could be the subscriber’s friends will be alerting him or her to the spam as well. I am also blocking that user from sending any mail into our server, with a rejection note that reads something like:

Fix your AOL problem then contact me via web form

This protects other lists on the server from running spam emails. If you receive this, you will not be able to contact me via email; you need to use one of the web-based forms available on www.lofcom.com, www.oldradio.net, blogs.oldradio.net, forums.oldradio.net, etc., etc. - you’ll see one right here if you click that “Contact the Webmaster” button over on the left sidebar.

If you receive this mail, the situation is serious (the bad guys have access to your address book and your email!), so please contact your provider (AOL, Yahoo!, whoever) for instructions on how to reset your password to something that bad guys can’t easily guess and cannot be hit with a dictionary attack…after your account is secure, then and only after the issue is resolved contact me via one of the web forms and I will remove the block on your email address.

I know this sounds harsh, but I need to protect the mailing lists from receiving this spam while not spending more and more of my own time manually dealing with it. I am, of course, always open to suggestions on a better way of dealing with this; post a comment here, or contact me privately via email (addresses are all in the footer of every Digest issue).

I’m only sorry the slimeball scammers have forced me into such a thing.

P.S. While I’m at it, please don’t add the Digest address to any social-networking “friends” list…the Digest isn’t going to join Facebook, Feed Share, or any other networking service (it’s a computer, after all), but it does require additional work for me to remove/block/deal with the requests. This isn’t happening often, but it does happen sometimes, and I’d like to prevent it from getting any worse.

From The New York Times: Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites

This is my favorite quote from the article: “‘I don’t think that exposing all this detailed information you have about the customer is necessary,’ said Alan Pearlstein, chief executive of Cross Pixel Media, a digital marketing agency. Mr. Pearlstein says he supports retargeting, but with more subtle ads that, for instance, could offer consumers a discount coupon if they return to an online store. ‘What is the benefit of freaking customers out?’”

Still, this is so painfully simple to eliminate…simply don’t accept cookies from marketers, or if you must (when shopping at on-line stores, for example), save cookies only per session and not persistantly; the next time you open your browser, the cookies are gone, and the marketers can no longer associate you with your last browsing session. The Firefox browser, along with add-ons like BetterPrivacy, Cookie Monster, NoScript, and others gives you extremely fine-grained control over what these slimeballs can track about your browsing habits, if you are willing to spend a little time actually setting-up and controlling your cookies.

From NewTeeVee: Copy Protection Makes Dozens of Blu-ray Titles Unplayable

From the article: “Samsung recently updated the firmware of its devices, and now users are reporting that a large number of Blu-ray titles from Warner Bros. and Universal don’t play anymore.”

This is yet another example where pirates who illegally copied the affected films have no problem at all viewing them in high-def, where legitimate purchasers are locked-out. DRM (Digital Rights Management) is universally evil, and I promise we will continue to see stories like this so long as it is accepted, and so long as people spend their monies where DRM is used.

From CNN: Google unveils Internet phone service to compete with Skype

From the article: “Google announced Wednesday that it will allow users to make phone calls over the Internet through its Gmail service, encroaching on territory that has thus far been dominated by Skype.”

Great…now Google will not only monitor what websites you visit and who you email and IM, but also who you telephone. How creepy is that?

From The New York Times: F.C.C. Chief Opposes Fees for Internet Priority

From the article: “‘Any outcome, any deal that doesn’t preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet for consumers and entrepreneurs will be unacceptable,’ Julius Genachowski, the F.C.C. chairman, told reporters on Thursday.”

I rarely agree with the FCC (which has a history of catering to media conglomerates and allowing the consumer to be royally screwed), but this time they are dead-on. Verizon and Google make a deal, I may be looking at other alternatives for my phone and Internet broadband.

From The New York Times: Google and Verizon in Talks on Selling Internet Priority

More like selling out the consumer. From the article: “Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.”

Net neutrality will be a distant memory if this nonsense is allowed to happen.

From the Christian Science Monitor: Privacy issues hit Facebook again

From the article: “Privacy concerns swirled around Facebook again after an employee of a firm called Skull Security compiled and released personal data on more than 100 million Facebook users, about a fifth of the site’s membership.”

Oh, yeah, and there’s only one small advertisement on this page, too, instead of boatloads that link to your private information. Facebook is just too creepy for my tastes.

From the New York Times: Ruling Allows ‘Jailbreaking’ of iPhones

From the article: “Owners of the iPhone will be able to legally unlock their devices so they can run software applications that haven’t been approved by Apple Inc., according to new government rules announced Monday.”

It won’t stop Apple from blowing it up with a software update, but at least it’s a step in the right direction…

Veteran journalist Daniel Schorr, whose hard-hitting reporting got him on Nixon’s ‘enemies list’ in the 1970s, dies at 93. More as I find it.

Edit: The New York Times obit.

Edit: For those who missed it, my trip to Politics and Prose to meet Mr. Schorr (includes photos and a short cell-phone video).

Check the comments on this blog post and please make suggestions for a good, free-for-personal-use, anti-virus software that doesn’t require you to deal with huge sales windows every day or demand every minute you restart your computer.

An incident I don’t want to detail has shown I need to briefly touch on what is and is not acceptable on the OTR Digest, or for that matter here on the Nostalgic Rumblings blog and on the Nostalgia Pages Forums, too.

Honest, it isn’t terribly restrictive…I mean, any discussion can become a little heated, especially when it’s as hot as it is here in the Northeast and we northeners are all a little cranky. Heck, disagreements can make the most interesting discussions to read…the trick here is to disagree with the points, not the person making them. Don’t attack the person, attack the idea. Do it politely even while being forceful, remembering the person on the other end is, above all, a person. Here on the Blog I tend to encourage more forceful discussions, and encourage you, my readers, to disagree with me and show me where I am wrong.

But I gotta tell you, swearing at another reader or subscriber, and frankly that includes me, is really not a good idea. I’m trying to keep all of the areas around here safe for folks of all ages, since it’s only by bringing in young people can we keep this hobby alive. So civility is required, and anyone forgetting this can expect a week or two “time-out” from the services here.
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Email scams are making the rounds again…unlike the annoying chain emails claiming that a president isn’t native-born or Bill Gates is giving away bazillions in an email lottery, these scams are designed to tug at your heart strings to help out a friend. Here’s a recent example, reported earlier today to the OTR Digest:

I’m writing this with tears in my eyes,I came down here to [insert any foreign location] for a short vacation unfortunately i got mugged at the park of the hotel where i stayed,all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off but luckily for me is that i still have my passports with me.

I’ve been to the embassy and the Police here but they’re not helping issues at all and my flight leaves in less than 3hrs from now but am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won’t let me leave until i settle the bills,I’m freaked out at the moment.

There are many variations on this horse-pucky, all of them designed to appeal to your desire to help out a friend.

I realize I sound like a hard-hearted b*stard, but don’t. The odds of someone you barely know asking you to bale them out of jail or send them money for living expenses are pretty darned low…and frankly, if they do, you need to question why they didn’t contact someone closer to them instead of you.

On the other hand, you may get this apparently from a family member, and be tempted…again, don’t. Pick up the phone, call other family members, check around…I mean, c’mon, if a close family member were stuck in some foreign land you can bet they will be making a whole lot of collect phone calls to a whole lot of family members, so verifying this should be simple.

Basically, I’m suggesting that any time you receive any emotion-packed email requesting funds, your default position is that it’s a bogus scam. Because it is.

For those of us in the northeast, this has been a miserable summer. It started with temperatures reaching the 90’s in the middle of May, and other than three days of blessed springtime weather last week, has pretty much stayed there. Watching the weather, and seeing temps predicted to reach triple-digits this week, it’s no wonder we easterners are all a little cranky.

So cut us some slack while we swelter, and swear a bit at the weather reports from Seattle with their highs in the 60’s and such.

From TheWrap.com: Feds Join Hands With H’wood in Anti-Piracy Initiative

From the article: “The launch of ‘Operation in Our Sites,’ a new U.S. initiative aimed at internet counterfeiting and piracy, was announced on Wednesday. But what makes this initiative different is that it partners law-enforcement officials with representatives of the entertainment industry.”

Great. Largest deficits in history, and your tax dollars are being spent to help the rich corporations in what is essentially a civil matter. Gotta love the government…even Joe Biden is in the MPAA’s pocket.

Looks like AOL is rejecting the Digest (or at least the most recent issue) across-the-board; if you are an AOL subscriber and received Vol. 2010 #114, let me know, please.

In the meantime, please complain to them, not to me…there isn’t anything I can do about it at this point. No other system seems to cause as much trouble as AOL…

My wife and I both got new cell phones, almost on the same day. And this has caused all kinds of issues in the household, primarily divided into two groups of problems: the first, unfamiliarity with the new gizmos, and the second, a determination among various manufacturers to make absolutely certain it ain’t easy to transfer personal information like contact lists.

My old phone was a Sony Ericsson Z520a, a great little phone, but a little constricting when trying to make to-do lists, memos, and the like on-the-road…so I bought an LG Cookie (over on the left) at a great price; it’s a touch-screen phone that accepts java applications (so I’m not locked into someone else’s idea of what I can run on my own phone) and so far I kinda like it…it’s everything a modern phone should be (which tends to mean about everything except a telephone), and even handles importing vCard-format contacts, which I should have been able to get out of my old phone, but for some reason couldn’t. So I wasted a whole lot of time manually sending the contacts one-at-a-time from the SE to the LG via bluetooth. Once on the LG, editing was relatively easy what with the various input methods including phone keypad, QWERTY keyboard, and even handwriting-recognition (although there’s no programmer in the world good enough to program a device to recognize my writing!). Using down-time, I was able to get my contact list looking pretty good.
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Not sure quite why, and it is not all AOL addresses that are bouncing, but each recent issue had a subset of addresses that are bouncing with a hard (500-level) error. The error message implies the problem is with the recipient address, but it wouldn’t be the first time an AOL misconfiguration caused the error message to be wrong.

Not sure what to do other than monitor the situation, since the error is definitely in the AOL servers, not the Digest server. But in the meantime, if you’re not receiving issues and AOL is having trouble getting mail to me, feel free to use the Contact the Webmaster button over on the sidebar to get ahold of me. (Hum…I should change that to “Contact the Curmudgeon…”)