All posts by celia

Blogging

Spam, Spam, Spam and Spear Phishing

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spamThis is what I remember. This is what you kept in the larder for emergency suppers. My mother did anyway. Ghastly, bright pink stuff you could eat straight from the tin or fry it and pretend it was something else.

Then, Python got hold of it and made it a sketch and a song and then a musical show.

pythonspam

 

Now, Spam is the stuff that arrives on your dashboard every day.

Experts say it generates a response rate of just 0.00001 per cent – but is still hugely profitable. Spammers used to take hefty commissions from sales with huge margins–generic or fake pharmaceuticals, pirated software, etc.

Web-based spam, using shady SEO methods and browser-hijacking trojans, offers an attractive alternative to new or small partners. For one, it takes almost no investment. Web hosting is extremely cheap, the e-commerce systems used in affiliate programs are free and easy to copy to a new site, and fewer measures need to be taken to avoid prosecution under anti-spam laws, which were written first and foremost to combat email spam.

So, Spam is here to stay as long as somebody is making money from it. However, the patterns of Spam seem to be changing. Whereas once it was blanket-bombing, the future indicates more targeted spamming. According to Anthony M. Freed of Security Bistro, Spam levels are down, but targeted attacks are up. Here’s what he says at http://www.securitybistro.com

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Anthony M. Freed

‘Less spam in your inbox: Good news. More spam geared towards targeted attacks: Not so good… In the wake of multiple large-scale botnet take-downs in 2011 and 2012, the over all volume of general spam traffic decreased significantly (53%), but targeted attacks via email are on the uptick according to researchers from German e-mail security provider Eleven. The percentage of spam messages that contained malicious agents such as malware-laden attachments, links to websites that facilitate drive-by attacks, and targeted phishing operations all showed a measurable increase over previous years, and the trend towards more focused attacks is expected to continue through 2013.’

Blimey. I’ve been targeted. Is that why they’re offering me hand-held magnifiers and gadgets for checking my blood pressure. Is there actually a spy-bot out there spear-phishing for grandmas?

nospamPiss off!

Mick

Displacement Activities can easily fill your time

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Himself is a master. Black belt, hard core procrastinator. Himself can look at a job that needs doing and pick up the phone to speak to his brother instead. Then they talk for at least half an hour about the job that needs doing.

thiefofdreams
don’t rob yourself

To be fair, herself is probably almost a brown belt. But, you see, it all depends on the job it is that needs doing. Ironing or go for a swim? No contest. Clean the toilet or sit outside with a clinky drink? Are you kidding? Writing or anything you might care to name? Writing, writing, writing.

If I’m not writing, I’m thinking about it. There’s not much that I will allow to get in the way of my writing. Selfish? Absolutely. Nobody’s starving around here. Everybody eventually has ironed clothes to wear. I’ve done my years of earning a living doing things I had to do to meet the targets, to keep the funding, to satisfy the consumers etc. etc.

Thing is, see, the minute I move away from the keyboard to prepare that lunch or slice those vegetables, guess who jumps in the chair the second it becomes vacant? Himself, of course. He’s Facebooking or he’s looking up properties for sale or comparing prices on remote-controlled horizontal deadbolts. (I made that last one up)

I have to hang onto my seat. Literally. Even if it means I’m developing writer’s arse. To himself, my keyboard is a displacement activity, whereas, to a writer like me, well, you know the rest.

Writing

What is the theme of your book?

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You have to know. You have to be able to say, very succinctly, what your novel is about. What it ultimately IS. In one sentence. Go on. Say it. If you can’t, there’s a good chance you don’t really know what your purpose is for this book.

threerulesfowriting
just three rules would be easy . . .

A funny little quote from W. Somerset Maugham is all well and good and lightens the mood in an old-fashioned, quaint sort of way, does it not, Madam? Sir?

But we ain’t writing old-fashioned, quaint sorts of books, are we? Unless we’re Alexander McCall Smith and he’s a master so there’s no point in trying to emulate his style.

We have to have thrust. We have to have a clear picture of where we’re going right at the very beginning of this book, and we have to keep watching the SatNav all along the way to prevent from wandering from our ultimate purpose.That’s why we need one clear sentence that says what this book IS. That’s why we have to keep that one clear sentence lodged in our thinking as the plot progresses.

Writing

Loving the writing

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flyingpants
pantsing doesn’t always get you where you want to go

I looked at my tag cloud.  What? The blogging word was getting too big. It was almost as big as the writing word. See what happens when you’re not looking? When you’re pantsing instead of planning. For initiates pantsing is flying by the seat of them. Get it?

Pantsing is great for that piece of morning writing when your head needs clearing and you just write down the first thing you think of. Afterwards, you can have a look at what you wrote and decide whether any of it’s worth keeping. Mostly, it isn’t. So you have to plan what you’re going to write.

lovereading
in love with reading
lovewriting
in love with writing

Did I mention before that as well as short stories, I write novels? And, as it’s Valentine Day, I’m taking this opportunity to dedicate myself to them: my novels. I am in love with all of them. I shall be in love with the next when it arrives. My love for them has no bounds. Like with your children, your love grows: you don’t steal from one to give to another. You love them all.

Blogging

H tags and Latent Semantic Indexing

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Htags
cutesy H tags

Oh, P.L.E.A.S.E. Optimizing H tags? WTF?

Leave me alone. Who are these people hitting on my baby and telling me nobody will hear its cries for attention? Why are they leaving messages every day? Why have they got names like Dick Schone, Jimmie Limber, Bradly Stanphill and Dean Heldman but their comments are all identical? I mean, absolutely IDENTICAL. They’re not real people obviously. Real people don’t use EXACTLY the same words. They must be H tags. Real people don’t send tricksy little messages to get you to click on this or open that. They are the cold-callers of the internet and they either want to sell you something or bite you on the bum. I bet they have black eyes. You know, like the black-eyed children wind-up a while ago.

Midwich cuckoos
Midwich cuckoo children actually had golden eyes.

Somebody thought they were being clever using this photo as evidence of children having all black eyes. But, it’s a shot from a film based on John Wyndham’s novel The Midwich Cuckoos. See, I’m old enough to remember. I actually read that book.

Go teach your grandma to you-know-what. Leave this grandma alone. Stop bothering her with your offers of super-dooper sunglasses. What makes you think I’m interested in your hand-held magnifier? Gettoutamypub. I repeat. Leave me alone.

lsi
lsi building blocks

I’m learning at my own pace, thank you very much. I’m building my knowledge, but I don’t yet know how it all fits together. As with any kind of building, it seems to me you’ve got to have a solid foundation. I’m still at the foundation level.

Blogging

HTML, Codex, Gobbledygook and English

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Just when I thought I was doing okay. Just when I was happier about my smart, new website and feeling a certain amount of warmth toward WordPress, along comes unsolicited advice about SEO.

searchengines
searching the search engines

 

I know what it is. Now. I didn’t, oh, way back there in January when I began this blogging thing. Now I know what the letters stand for; I just haven’t got around to learning much about it yet. So, when comments arrive on my dashboard, I get that familiar sinking feeling telling me I’m still not doing this blogging lark properly. I have to get optimized. I have to learn about creepy-crawly spider things out there in the virtual web, just yearning to get their little pincers into my juicy, young website.

spidersearch
poor little spiderbot hard at work

In fact, this website is the only thing about me that’s juicy and fresh. Apart from my writing of course.

Blogging

Xin Nian Kuai Le

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Or Gong Hei Fard Choy. The house is almost thoroughly cleaned. It’s going to be a busy day today. The kitchen gods will be appeased, I hope, by my efforts with the sizzling beef and ginger. I’ve put my red top ready to wear tomorrow so the monster doesn’t come down from the mountain to eat me. There will be no mention of that number, the one that comes after three and before five and we will not talk about negative things nor buy new shoes. Tomorrow we will eat without knives and using scissors will be banned.

ChineseRat
sign of the Rat

I’m a Rat. An Earth Rat, to be exact.

In western astrology I’m a sea goat – the true meaning of Capricorn, Oh, 2013, bring on the Good Luck!

Capricorn
Capricorn – the sea goat

 

Blogging, Inspirations

And now I’ve sorted out the link thing

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Here’s the proof. I’m actually going to place a link within this post, I might be green and cabbage-looking on a bad day, but I consider this new knowledge no less than a triumph.
I’m picking up on the subject matter of Holly Lisle’s tip of the week at http://hollylisle.com

ideas tap
Can you simply turn on ideas?

Today she’s answering a query about ideas and it got me thinking about my own ideas and where they come from. I have a page on here dedicated to Inspirations. Take a look while you’re here – drop me a line if you like.

So, can you turn on ideas like a tap? Or fawcett, depending on where you are. I can’t. I have no control over them. I could sit in a specially designated ideas room with an extra comfy ideas chair, drinking a specially brewed cup of ideas tea and nothing would happen. I know for a certainty that nothing would happen. I’d be wasting my time. You can’t force ideas. Well, I suppose some people can, but I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about what works best for me. Letting it happen is what works for me. Not trying to force it. Not beating myself up if it doesn’t happen.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Sometimes, it’s a visual motivation: a mountain, a lake, a celebration. Sometimes an idea comes from something I’ve heard someone say. I’ll be right there, in the middle of a conversation and . . . bang . . . I have a new title to work with or a situation ready-primed with emotional conflicts.

On a coffee break with friends, the subject of planning meals came up. It was one of those light bulb moments to use a cliché that are supposed to be forbidden. The idea stuck with me and another short story came into being. I wrote it in a matter of hours, sent it off and the editor liked it – except for the ending. A quick revision solved the problem.

A chance remark became this short story
A chance remark became this short story
Writing

You can’t please everybody

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This morning, I happened to catch a UK television programme I hadn’t seen before. Artists went before a hanging committee to win a place at an exhibition at the prestigious Tate Gallery. Three judges sat on the panel and contestants needed a majority vote to go forward.

A young photographer made it through and said she’d charge three hundred pounds if somebody wanted to buy her exhibit. That would cover her costs. On exhibition day, prospective purchasers were requested to put in sealed bids for work they wanted to buy.

There was only the one sealed envelope for this young woman’s work. She sold it for nearly three THOUSAND pounds.

Now then, what if one more judge had given her the thumbs down? What if that particular buyer hadn’t attended the exhibition that day? Might that talented young woman have gone home thinking that nobody liked her work? Might she have been so disillusioned by the whole experience that she simply gave up?

Here’s the thing. You can’t please everybody, so don’t try. Stick with what you know you do best. Make sure it is your best. Don’t be put off.