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• Top 10 lists about blogging lists
• Post turtle

How’s that for casual motoring? Two dogs, no helmet, on a cellphone. Welcome to Sumatra, Indonesia. I saw another bike loaded with 3 dogs and 2 guys on the way to what I found out later was a weekly wild boar hunt. If you find yourself in Padang on a Wednesday, make your way over towards Painan for some good fun hunting boar.

• Newsflash: Men like porn
• Wolfmother live New Moon Rising

Made my brain jiggle a bit.

• Welcome to The Machine
• I endorse McCain for President, of Halloween

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Up until now I’ve been a happy customer. Two days of downtime has left me disappointed. Here is what Dreamhost support had to say.

Hmm, it seems that the move back to phaeton had an issue. I’ve corrected
it for this domain (all the others appear to be fine), and after DNS
propagation again (sorry about that) it’ll come back up!

Thanks!
Joshua H

24 hours earlier I got this support message followed by another day of downtime without an update.

Sorry for the inconvenience. We have reset your http_config file and your
service and your site should be backup soon. If your site still seems to
be down go ahead and refresh the page a couple of times it also may take
a couple of hours to come back up if your ISP has cached (saved) the the
DNS settings, it will come up once they update the their DNS.

Thanks!
Javier R

My frustration is that Dreamhost did not fix the problem the first time and that each support request took one whole day to get a response.

A quick search on twitter shows that I’m not the only one having issues. Time to look for a Dreamhost alternative. Suggestions?

• Dreamhost bad httpd conf again
• Photobooth effects for Skype avatars

This is NOT photoshopped. The man actually made this zombie face in the final moments of the most important televised appearance of his political life. He is a Maverick! What if he’d performed the thriller routine? John McCain, you won’t get my vote but you’re invited to any future BBQ I have. Just leave Keating at home, he’s creepy. And tell Sarah, no moose. It’s hell to clean up the grill afterwards.

US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reacts to almost heading the wrong way off the stage after shaking hands with Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, October 15, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

• Fox, fair and balanced from day one
• Obama: “I can take 4 more weeks of attacks, but America can’t take 4 years of McCain”

BEIJING – Used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China, ironically threatening to spread the very STDs they were originally meant to prevent, state media reported on Tuesday.

In the latest example of potentially harmful Chinese-made products, rubber hair bands have been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said.

Melamine in baby milk, lead in toys, used condoms hairbands? What the hell is the matter with Chinese manufacturers? It’s like there is a contest to see who can pull off the most fucked up consumer defilements.

Via SIASA DUNI

Bad… Very Bad..

• Surprise, China blocks blog coverage of milk scandal
• Mastodon cover Melvins, “The Bit”

• For anyone that ever thought, “I can’t do that”
• Social media for finding a job

I’ve been getting odd and cryptic messages through AIM from usernames PersonalTrout, ImplicitTrout and other trout-like nicks. I replied as you would when a stranger messages, “who is this, how can I help you, etc.” The only replies were equally odd. Today I got a reply from a fishy friend. Apparently there is a bot that harvests recently updated Twitter profile names and uses IM networks to bridge together 2 strangers with the intent of confusing both.

Mystery solved. Glad to know I’m not being stalked by a crazy fisherman.

The Semi-Mini FAQ

Q: What is this?

A: It’s like a three-way phonecall – but over an IM, with a computer program creating the link.

Q: How did they get my screen name?

A: These bots search the recently updated pages of web sites (LiveJournal, Xanga, deviantArt, Twitter, etc.) to find screen names and connect random people.

Q: Did I just get h@x0r3d?

A: No, the bots aren’t malicious. And you’re not 1337, stop typing like that. They’re completely harmless.

Update: h/t to Tim

Looks like there is more history to this one. TheGreatHatsby article on Wikipedia for more trout / coho / salmon bot fishing.

• Social Media Optimization project: Democrats Abroad
• Social media for finding a job