A helpful spammer found a hole in one of my old web forms. So he started blasting out email through it. I removed the script, and then captured the IP addresses of the compromised systems/bots that were trying to use it. I’d suggest you block these IP addresses. Who should this be reported to? Each ISP individually? Ugh.

12.193.197.131
12.217.163.209
125.234.140.212
148.243.37.162
163.32.106.12
164.100.104.29
193.227.131.50
195.131.113.70
195.13.59.214
195.172.22.149
200.107.11.33
200.118.126.60
200.126.72.36
200.142.178.167
200.162.113.38
200.209.169.125
201.14.77.26
201.17.153.134
201.17.165.193
201.17.234.101
201.17.236.196
201.20.109.76
201.209.238.209
201.217.202.186
201.245.148.238
201.247.104.85
201.55.104.165
201.55.112.140
202.143.133.243
202.58.85.2
202.58.85.8
202.58.86.3
202.69.187.166
202.89.50.10
203.131.80.158
203.131.96.179
203.144.135.18
203.162.3.157
203.193.138.140
203.99.65.224
203.99.65.225
205.160.32.38
207.6.243.128
209.112.162.114
209.240.205.60
209.240.205.61
210.101.138.153
210.102.0.50
210.108.109.206
210.119.148.183
210.183.193.78
210.187.6.84
210.191.99.13
210.212.251.178
210.223.135.202
210.66.227.44
211.100.4.71
211.115.232.228
211.141.77.194
211.153.44.155
211.162.62.161
211.169.74.180
211.187.34.124
211.215.224.65
211.219.127.26
211.219.228.226
211.232.167.3
211.232.42.182
211.242.159.207
211.32.99.87
211.35.206.200
211.63.225.159
211.76.98.66
212.30.25.190
212.61.237.53
213.114.21.87
213.42.2.21
213.42.2.23
216.11.0.16
216.51.36.68
217.174.16.29
217.199.172.146
218.11.207.244
218.128.122.84
218.128.240.113
218.136.126.138
218.152.149.90
218.152.188.142
218.234.166.125
218.38.165.177
218.38.200.109
218.47.90.174
218.48.229.77
218.53.104.2
218.55.218.223
218.55.222.195
218.56.144.42
218.62.81.78
219.0.44.90
219.134.131.138
219.136.249.79
219.140.165.91
219.144.196.226
219.187.244.82
219.207.92.238
219.232.9.180
219.248.234.23
219.250.255.50
220.119.46.153
220.119.76.147
220.119.76.149
220.119.76.183
220.127.228.69
220.67.148.140
220.70.174.163
220.70.191.175
220.72.119.33
220.72.178.171
220.77.86.98
220.77.98.160
220.83.98.138
220.84.75.203
220.94.120.172
221.142.245.144
221.147.4.37
221.150.6.144
221.160.41.7
221.162.34.222
222.100.119.244
222.107.238.165
222.108.238.105
222.108.69.22
222.109.198.102
222.112.118.85
222.120.142.233
222.121.132.191
222.234.86.98
222.97.196.107
24.118.180.218
24.173.26.4
24.97.21.26
58.145.50.53
58.151.127.130
58.186.65.4
58.233.212.223
58.234.123.56
58.237.215.184
58.239.170.107
58.72.23.130
58.72.80.208
59.0.184.38
59.10.50.60
59.12.8.121
59.13.184.230
59.13.207.91
59.13.220.92
59.148.214.110
59.1.51.8
59.17.231.185
59.20.40.134
59.20.57.129
59.20.72.69
59.22.215.71
59.26.229.23
59.28.89.124
59.3.87.102
59.5.183.46
59.5.210.236
59.94.109.87
60.28.0.242
61.103.156.75
61.142.212.46
61.185.219.235
61.189.240.196
61.238.244.86
61.33.139.145
61.34.64.166
61.35.59.44
61.36.21.113
61.36.79.148
61.37.128.204
61.37.158.100
61.38.148.33
61.39.139.200
61.74.43.199
61.75.62.200
61.76.172.14
62.116.40.112
62.163.32.15
62.163.39.196
62.163.78.183
62.171.194.5
62.183.25.238
62.183.50.164
62.255.32.14
62.255.32.17
62.44.127.250
64.180.252.105
66.192.30.22
66.215.235.63
66.29.114.60
66.29.114.62
66.98.162.34
66.98.164.40
67.84.163.174
68.102.0.225
68.167.97.42
68.167.97.43
68.195.110.157
68.228.163.110
68.228.84.2
68.230.149.234
68.230.95.249
68.38.182.178
68.69.160.206
68.8.205.46
69.15.96.51
69.45.68.245
70.136.76.25
70.159.21.50
70.177.123.178
71.197.204.237
71.250.236.24
80.25.24.118
80.33.109.11
80.90.29.7
81.168.251.159
81.228.239.210
81.89.10.21
82.101.163.27
82.198.121.2
82.217.100.175
82.233.83.67
82.246.36.55
83.102.220.98
83.117.80.252
84.178.188.191
85.131.12.162
85.137.49.193
85.180.156.94
85.180.189.76
85.186.81.18
85.30.97.83

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. This allows you to read my newer articles without having to visit the site again. Thanks for visiting! Mike

Never mind. “Never wrestle a pig in mud, because you get dirty and the pig enjoys it.”

Wow. I received my first Cease and Desist “order” today. Via email. From Michael S. Cox. Supposedly. I wonder what the legal system in Poland is like? I don’t think they would have jurisdiction over me.

I use a unique email address anyplace I need to give out my email address. This allows me to track spam and other unethical organizations that believe their “message” is more important than my privacy. A simple MD5 hash of (the domain I’m submitting to) plus (a private password) gives me a unique 32 character address. I combine that with a shell script to keep my virtusertable up-to-date, and a set of Eudora filtering rules, and my email is pretty much automagically sorted.

When I opt-out of a mailing list, I mean it. So if an organization adds me back to their list, I get annoyed. Really annoyed. So when the Sierra Club used Uptilt.com to spam me this afternoon, I got annoyed. I’ve reported the spam to Sierra club and Uptilt. We’ll see what kind of response they give me. If any. I’m not expecting much of a response, the Uptilt.com “Anti-Spam Policy” has huge holes in it.

I stumbled across this page: One Day at a Time on the Five-Million-Step Program. I read the article, but at the end of the page was told to read the rest I should buy the June/July (2004!) issue of the magazine. Nice. This is what I asked the editors at the magazine:

I just stumbled across the article at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0406/excerpt3.html. At the bottom of the page it says to read the rest of the article I should “pick up the June/July issue of Adventure.” You really expect me to find an issue of your magazine in a library from nearly two years ago? That’s really quite unrealistic. Who’s going to go through that effort? What you should be doing is adding the text to the page when the next issue comes out. So when you published August/September 2004, the June/July 2004 articles should have been posted in their entirety. I’d love to know your thinking about why you don’t have old articles online. Thanks, Mike

Back in January I set one of my ancient domains to forward all of it’s spam to a Gmail account. (original post: Comparing Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail) I just today looked at the Gmail account to see how it’s doing. Argh! My ancient domain has filled up its hard drive with spam, so it’s been generating error messages for a few days. The Gmail account has collected 49,627 messages in the inbox, and 165,939 messages in the Spam box.

The spam box gets emptied of messages over 30 days old, which I guess is a good thing, since I am using 1,580MB (58%) of my 2,722Mb of space. There aren’t any attachments on these messages either, I strip them when the message comes into my old domain.

I’ve also had to stop forwarding messages to Gmail, Gmail has been refusing the messages since there were too many coming in. [---@gmail.com]: host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[72.14.205.27] said: 450-4.2.1 The Gmail user you are trying to contact is receiving 450-4.2.1 mail at a rate that prevents additional messages from 450-4.2.1 being delivered. Please resend your message at a later 450-4.2.1 time; if the user is able to receive mail at that time, 450 4.2.1 your message will be delivered. f14si1822916qba (in reply to RCPT TO command)