Simmons Consulting

Facebook ads malware

22
Feb

Not sure what is going on with Facebook but I logged on this evening and within two clicks, received a scareware/malware-type popup message. It said something about “Hey your computer is infected, Do you want to scan it now?” This was a Javascript popup message with an “OK” and “Cancel” button. I clicked “Cancel” and immediately the browser window was covered up with a fake Windows dialog box showing a progress bar and a flashing “Scanning!” prompt. I closed the browser immediately and noticed the URL of the malicious page. It was from (DO LOAD THIS WEBSITE)

http:// 217.23.5.205/ index.html

The IP address appears to be owned by an outfit in the Netherlands.

This page had some simple attempts at Javascript obfuscation but essentially it covered up the browser window with a <div> that looked like an Explorer window with infected files. Bear this in mind while browsing.

Churches helping churches

25
Jan

Watch this short film put together by Mars Hill Church (in Seattle) and Harvest Bible Chapel. Pastors Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald took a 32-hour trip to Haiti to survey the condition of the local churches and body. It will leave you wrecked.


YouTube Preview Image

Updated Bootcamp drivers (3.0)

23
Nov

I recently purchased a Macbook Pro 15″ (aluminum unibody version) and I love it. Since I do most of my web development under Windows (at least for now, this may change!), one of the first things I did was install Windows on a Bootcamp partition. I did this before upgrading the installed OS X operating system from Leopard (10.5) to Snow Leopard (10.6). This installed version 2.1 of the Bootcamp drivers for Windows. These drivers allow the Apple hardware to work under Windows, including the sound card, video, multi-touch trackpad (like enabling two-finger scrolling, right click, etc.) and more.

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Google thinks I’m a robot?

24
Aug
Screen shot of Google error message



So Google thinks I’m a robot? I was doing a fair amount of searching because I had a server down and needed to fix it, but seriously?

Reinstall Adobe CS3, keep all your settings

19
Aug

I recently had a problem with my laptop where I couldn’t update Adobe Acrobat because something had corrupted the installation. Acrobat (and the rest of the CS apps) ran fine, but I couldn’t update because the updater would throw an error, something about “source for the installation could not be found.” After much Googling and trying several options, I realized I would have to manually uninstall the whole CS3 suite and reinstall. Ugh.

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Oh, the irony

18
Aug

A while back I was driving to work and passed the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus. Outside was a large electronic billboard flashing different notices for students and faculty. As I approached the board, I saw a large image of a cigarette with a circle/slash appearing over it, followed by these words:

UALR campus is smoke free as of Aug. 16!

Then, a few seconds later, the very next message appeared:

Art of the Peyote Religion and the Native American Church

Hmm … cigarettes = bad but peyote = good?

iTunes Music Store customer service ROCKS!

17
Jun

Some may complain about the way Apple does things, but I recently had an experience with iTunes Music Store (iTMS) customer support that was incredible. I have to say that I’m even more of a fan boy of the iTMS than I was before.

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Facebook boom

16
Jun
Screenshot of Facebook error screen



Good grief. Seriously, is it just me? Is the whole Internet crashing? Google, YouTube and Facebook in the last week.