Odd Lots
- Alas, we have lost my favorite country music star, Toby Keith, of stomach cancer, at 62. He had lots of hits, but may be most famous for “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” the most-played country song of the 1990s. (And if you’ve never seen my filk “Should’ve Been a Jedi,” you can find it here.) Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.
- Ever heard of Venus’ moon Zoozve? You say Venus doesn’t have any moons? Well…it’s complicated. And interesting. Not to mention funny as hell.
- Orkin (the bug people) posted a list of the top 50 US cities for bedbug infestations. My home town is #1. My current metro isn’t even on the list. I guess I chose wisely.
- February is National Grapefruit Month, and today is National Fettuccine Alfredo day. Alas, my birthday is National Mud Day—granting that when I was a kid, I played happily in the mud. How do I know such important things? Of course: There’s a website for it. Select a day, week, or month, and who knows what people will be celebrating?
- Well, it’s not exactly a flying car, but…it’ll do, it’ll do.
- Three million malware-infected smart toothbrushes were gathered into a botnet that tormented Swiss servers with DDOS attacks. Uggh. My toothbrush is smart enough to be dumb. And hey, it smells like Pepsodent. Can’t beat that!
- Trout gonads can cure baldness when injected into your head. So just eating the trout doesn’t work? Bummer. I’m out.
Posted in: Odd Lots.
Tagged: music · networking
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Re the ‘toothbrush DDOS’ – didn’t happen. Misinformation, spread by clueless journalists looking for a headline and clicks.
There’s an issue with Aargauer Zeitung‘s report. It didn’t actually happen. From one of many sources (watch the dates of stories that are still claiming it).
“The story is fiction. Three million smart toothbrushes didn’t launch a DDoS attack against a Swiss company.
“If they really had launched the attack, Fortinet’s PR team would surely have been pushing out the news left, right, and centre. But Fortinet’s social media accounts and press release archives are silent.”
See https://grahamcluley.com/tooth-be-told-toothbrush-ddos-attack-claim-was-lost-in-translation-says-fortinet/
Well, I wondered about that. Good to know it was all BS. Thanks for pointing it out.
Ah, Pepsodent! Once a famous brand, with a jingle I can still play in my head after 50 years or so. Now a bargain toothpaste surviving off its residual name recognition. But also, its attraction for people who don’t want mint flavored toothpaste! (Like me.)
This. I’ve tried all kinds of toothpaste in my 71 years, and I dislike them all except for Pepsodent. I’m not a huge fan of mint anything, and I’ve found that it’s easier to get the taste of Pepsodent out of your mouth than that of any of the minty toothpastes. So I’ll use it until it goes away. But I don’t think it’s going to go away.
The Orkin list of cities is “where Orkin performed the most bed bug treatments”. No mention of population, so of course the list is skewed toward the largest cities.
Thank you ever so much for a needed break from a legacy application.
“You’ll wonder where the yellow went …”