Category: starred

The 2013 User Agent Blacklist blocks hundreds of the worst bots while ensuring open-access for normal traffic, major search engines (Google, Bing, et al), and everyone else. Compared to blocking threats by IP, blocking by user-agent is more effective as a general security strategy. Although it’s trivial to spoof any user agent, many bad requests continue to report user-agent strings that are known to be associated with malicious activity. For example, the notorious “httrack” user agent has been widely blocked since at least 2007, yet it continues to plague sites to this day. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if it’s the […]

via Perishable Press 2013 User Agent Blacklist

When time allows, I like to post my collections of the worst IP addresses for the current year. Certainly, there are pros and cons to using an IP blacklist. In general, IPs are easily spoofed, change frequently, and are therefore unreliable as a general security strategy. But as a short-term solution, IP blacklists serve as an excellent method for dealing with specific and/or ongoing threats and attacks. For example, you may use a firewall to protect your site against malicious scanning, bad bots, and the typical evil request, but if your site specifically is targeted by an attacker, spammer, or […]

via Perishable Press 2013 IP Blacklist

No matter what your beliefs, it’s hard to deny that the era in which the Bible takes place was a more, uh, brutal time, filled with plagues, salt pillars, and excessive murders—plus plenty of conflicting moral diktats from the man himself. Now, one designer has built a handy map to help us navigate this roller coaster ride of a religious text.

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via Gizmodo This Comprehensive Map Traces 463 of the Bible’s Major Contradictions

By Dennis Crouch Ex parte Mewherter (PTAB 2013) The USPTO has recently designated Ex parte Mewherter as a precedential decision with regards to its treatment of rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The opinion basically holds that standard Beauregard claims…

via Patent Law Blog (Patently-O) USPTO: Software Composition Inventions are Unpatentable under §101 unless they Clearly Disavow that the Storage Mechanism is a Transitory Wave or Signal

The pinwheel-like drawing above is nothing but black and white lines. When you look at it the right way, though, something strange and beautiful happens: it begins to flicker. You may think it’s just a regular old optical illusion at first, but actually, you’re looking at your very own brain waves.

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via Gizmodo This Optical Illusion Lets You See Your Own Brain Waves

There’s a very cool group out there called the Hacker Scouts, which was started last year, trying to get kids interested in cool hacking stuff:

Hacker Scouts is a national non profit organization, founded in the Fall of 2012 in Oakland CA, that focuses on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) education, skill building and community engagement with the aspiration to help our children develop skills in the areas they are truly interested in, abilities that would allow them to dream big and create big. A variety of experts and mentors from the community ensure a well rounded and high level of attention and skill building for all ages through accessible programs that meet the different needs of our young makers. Hacker Scouts provides open source material and a support program for Hacker Scout programs globally.

Awesome, right? Definitely the kind of thing that should be encouraged. But, then the Boy Scouts of America went ballistic and threatened the Hacker Scouts with trademark infringement claims:

For the past several months we have been dealing with an issue that we now feel is at a point where it is important to let you know what is going on. A few months ago, we received a Cease and Desist letter from the Boy Scouts of America when we tried to trademark our name. Through various letters, we have tried to quietly come to a compromise, but the BSA position is clear: change our name or they will take us to court.

This is a difficult situation for us. We believe in our name and our right to use the word “scouts”. The BSA’s main argument is that they have a constitutional charter that they interpret to mean they have the right to use and trademark any word they choose. We disagree. We believe the charter itself may be unconstitutional, and that “scouts” is a world-wide connotation for a youth organization that existed before them and will exist long after them. We have also tried to be very clear in our message that we are not affiliated with the Boy Scouts nor are we trying to replace them. We do not offer the same experience, nor do we have a similar model as they do. We did not base our organization on them.

So, apparently, the Boy Scouts are trademark bullies. There’s no likelihood of confusion here, and the idea of dilution based on the use of the common word “scouts”? Seems ridiculous.

Except… lawyer Ron Coleman dug into things a bit and discovered that Congress, stunningly, has actually passed a special law just for the Boy Scouts that allows them to be trademark bullies. No joke. It’s 36 USC 30905, which is a part of 36 USC 309, which is a law just for the Boy Scouts of America. In 30905, the Boy Scouts appear to be given full “exclusive right” to “emblems, badges, descriptive or designating marks, and words or phrases the corporation adopts.” This goes way, way beyond what traditional trademark law allows, and the Boy Scouts appear to be using it to their trademark bullying advantage.

In fact, Coleman cites a case, Wrenn v. BSA from 2008, in which the court flat out said:

BSA need not demonstrate the likelihood of confusion because it has been granted special protection by Congressional charter

So, there you go. Stunningly, and ridiculously, the US government has given the Boy Scouts of America free reign to be obnoxious trademark bullies, threatening and going after anyone who uses “scouts” even if there’s no likelihood of confusion at all.

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via Techdirt. Congress Gave Boy Scouts Special Law To Let Them Be Obnoxious Trademark Bullies

If you’ve ever tried to compare cell phone plan prices, you know it’s an exercise in frustration. This calculator from The Wall Street Journal simplifies the 500 or so variations in pricing to tell you whether T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T has the best pricing for your specific needs.

Answer five questions and the calculator will show you the cheapest plans and how the pricing breaks down. (Update: Note that the calculator doesn’t include prepaid plans, which could save you a bundle more, but you’ll have to compare those plans yourself.)

In most cases, whether you have one or multiple lines, T-Mobile is the cheapest option of the Big Four providers—something we’ve discussed previously. (I wish this calculator was around back then!) However, if you look at the 2-year prices, sometimes—depending on how many phone lines you need—the other providers are less expensive or close to T-Mobile. That’s because this calculator rolls into the two-year price the cost of paying for an iPhone 5—and T-Mobile customers pay full price for the phones while the other providers subsidize them.

Price isn’t the only factor when choosing a wireless provider, but it’s definitely one of the major considerations. This tool takes the pain out of comparing your different options.

WSJ’s Wireless Savings Calculator | The Wall Street Journal via Consumerist

via Lifehacker This Interactive Tool Shows the Cheapest Wireless Plans for Your Needs

There are a lot of ways to block ads, but with a simple command in the developer console, you can disable all ads on YouTube via an experiment.

Google frequently tries out new features with experiments via TestTube. A less advertised experiment can disable all ads on the site. Here’s how to turn it on:

1. Open up a YouTube video (any will do).
2. Open up the developer console (Ctrl-Shift-J for Chrome, Ctrl-Shift-K for Firefox)
3. Enter the following code:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=oKckVSqvaGw; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

Boom. No more ads. Since this is something that Google is allowing, it’s possible it could go away in the future, but while it works, you get a lovely ad-free viewing experience without any plugins. It even works on those pesky video ads.

YouTube Experiment gets rid of all advertisement on site | Ghacks

via Lifehacker Disable Ads on YouTube With This Simple Command