Eye Ball Series

Sent out an email to some friends today. Thought I'd bring that same email here and post it...

Some pretty interesting links. I think one could spend quite a bit of time traveling through sites that perhaps reveal more than they should.
Especially knowing the bad guys can see them too. ...PRY...
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"This paper documents and assesses emerging efforts to resist and subvert deep-seated and long-held governmental secrecy over geographical spaces of military/security activities and other sites deemed sensitive by the state. It explores tensions in new web-served mapping and high-resolution imagery of these sites, which view them though ‘pin holes’ of publicly available data. These ‘counter-mappings’ focus attention on the significance of sites that are either buried unnoticed in seamless global image coverage, or else censored on official mapping. Some reveal a strongly anti-hegemonic and oppositional discourse, others a more playful set of cultural practices. We situate these newly witnessed secret sites in contemporary visual culture, exploring the spectacular and Debordian possibilities of resistance that they offer, and evaluate the significance and ironies of these diverse imaging practices.

Keywords: Secrecy, Spectacle, Satellite Imagery, Power, Resistance, Debord"


"Secrets are strongly associated with visual culture: they are hidden but may be revealed; ubiquitous, but often unseen and are particularly associated with certain spaces. This paper focuses upon the role of overhead imagery in the contestation of sites deemed secret by nation states."

from
Satellite Imagery and the Spectacle of Secret Spaces.

http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/m.dodge/spectacle_of_secret_spaces.pdf
................

Check out this link
http://eyeball-series.org/

If you do decide to wander through the link and the associated sites it links to come on back after a bit and share through comments what you think. Should governments close them down or place limits on them? Should free speech allow the revelation of sensitive locations? If so, who gets to decide where the line is?


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Technorati Tags -
Secrecy -
Government -
Internet -
Military -
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WHO IS BIFF LANE?

Note update and comment by Judy that was brought to the top. (MosquitoXperts.com)

Suddenly through my SiteMeter I see people visiting this Blogspot site after Google searching "Biff Lane". - Biff gets 313,000 hits without quotes and 23 Google hits with quotes. The link above leads to the poem, "Margin of Profit" from "Poetry to Remember" by Sara Webb Keaton. The reason for the visits/Google hits I've been getting.

The poem is based on a mythical character.

Evidently most all the other Biff Lane's listed by Google are mythical characters also.

What amazes me is that Biff Lane seems to be all over the place giving the near same TESTIMONIAL for all sorts of products and services.

"We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you once again. You made using our yard a wonderful experience. You were patient, knowledgeable, flexible, and your quality of work exceptional. Our guests constantly compliment us when we entertain...We would recommend you to all our friends and family because our experience was that good."
- Biff Lane and Laura Bluff Hill - www.mosquitoxperts.com/id6.html
- Mosquito Xperts, Corporate Headquarters, 2210 Page Rd, Suite 108, Durham, NC 27703

***UPDATE***
Judy of "Mosquito Xperts" has taken the time to comment and explain:
This template is part of the web hosting on Register.com. Our site is still under construction and partially completed. You can see that some of the last pages are not updated with our information as yet. It is a "do it yourself" web template.

Thanks for bringing this defect to my attention. We have plenty of legitimate referrals that we just haven't placed on that site as yet.
Judy Mosquito Xperts | Homepage |
***End Update***

Thanks Judy! I thought it only fair to bring your comment to the top. Hope this link brings you some business.

and

"We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you once again. You made securing our home a wonderful experience. You were patient, knowledgeable, flexible, and your quality of work exceptional. We would recommend you to all our friends and family because our experience was that good."
- Biff Lane - http://www.bestsecurity.us/id6.html
- ALARMKC.COM 12906 E 50th Terr Independence, MO 64055

and

"We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you once again. LRL made our office look wonderful. You were patient, knowledgeable, flexible, and your quality of work is exceptional. Our clients constantly compliment us on the cleanliness of our office...We would recommend you to all our friends and family because our experience was that good."
- Biff Lane and Laura Country-Lane - http://www.lrlcleaning.com/id6.html
- LRL COMMERCIAL CLEANING, INC. 129 CHESTERFIELD INDUSTRIAL BLVD
CHESTERFIELD, MISSOURI 63005

and

"We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you once again. You made our home a wonderful experience. You were patient, knowledgeable, flexible, and your quality of work exceptional. Our guests constantly compliment us on our home...We would recommend you to all our friends and family because our experience was that good."
- Biff Lane and Laura - http://www.nationalroofingco.net/id6.html
- National Roofing Company * P O Box 774 * Taunton * MA * 02780

and

"We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you once again. You made building our home a wonderful experience. You were patient, knowledgeable, flexible, and your quality of work exceptional. Our guests constantly compliment us on our home...We would recommend you to all our friends and family because our experience was that good."
- Biff Lane and Laura Country - http://all-careservices.com/id6.html
- All-Care Services Inc. * Transit Road* Amherst, NY *

Should I go On? - There are more...

WOW! Biff and Laura sure get around don't they! Plus Laura seems to change her last name a bit. Perhaps she is in a witness protection program or something.

And Rhonda Lerche has her picture that remains the same on these sites but her name also changes occasionally. She gets around too. Where Biff gets only 12 hits with quote marks Rhonda gets a whopping 742 websites. One of which sells dirty panties. No pic of Rhonda there but she still gives her testimonial about how much she enjoys the dirty panties she bought. - Forget it. I'm not linking to that one.

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Apparently all the sites are manufactured and registered through some outfit that has a cookie cutter way of doing business. - The companies listed above most likely are legit and I'm pretty certain the owners are a touch ignorant of the internet and how it works. I do wonder however about their allowing for phony testimonials. Couldn't they have gotten a few real customers to say something nice about them and used initials if they didn't want their name used on the internet?

Someone want to do the work and find out who is at the root of this I'll be glad to take the name from comments and post the name right up here in the body of this posting along with a link to your site and a big ATTABOY!.

Oh! here was one more fancy one that they put up. I'd be more impressed if I didn't know that Biff Lane originally came from a poet's imagination.
http://tbwarranty.com/site.swf


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Technorati Tags -
Fraud -
Internet -
Humor -

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WorldCat Network

The Bookshop Blog posted an article titled, "The fine art of Book Pricing."

Quite a good read for any bookseller and it has a few tips for books that are "one of a kind". - I've come across a few that I just can't find through Google or Yahoo. Just a couple days ago I found I own "Hooray for a Roue'" by H.R. Washburne. Could only find a single reference that was really a dead link from some joker of a booksales site that had the title listed but no book for sale.

Well that told me that someone else out there had at least heard of the book. I wasn't holding a figment of my imagination. I saw the title on the internet so I knew it must exist. It is book of poetry that I will soon be listing. Unless I misplace it in one of my stacks...

I started working on the author's name and in my search I came across WorldCat.org.

I was too slow in getting this resource I've found over to the good folks at The Bookshop Blog for them to post it in the article so I left the following in their comments.

Here is another Handy Dandy Book Resource I found just recently.

http://worldcat.org/

They have a toolbar search engine you can load on to the top of your browser page. Just type in the tile or author and it takes you to the page you want. - Lists Libraries that carry the book and tabs can (hopefully) take you to other info that is helpful.

Sign up and in your profile you can link to your website and blogsite. Create lists of books you like and check out profiles of other people with similar tastes. That is if they don’t have their profile private which you can do too if you prefer the anonymity.

As occasion and time permits you can add to their site the table of contents and/or a short synopsis/review of a book which might (or might not) get people to check your profile and go to your website.

I’ve seen some books where they give the printing history which can be very helpful too.

So far I’ve found it helpful and have found a couple books listed that it was difficult and/or impossible to find on Google or Yahoo.

Hope to see you there.

WorldCat has a lot of growing to do and needs a bit of help in doing so. It is a good resource and those who love books can make it even better. I encourage book sellers and book buyers to visit, Sign up, try the toolbar, and join the fun.


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Technorati Tags -
Books -
Worldcat -
References -

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Hmmm. It Stopped Being Funny!!!

Quite a while ago I posted some Retirement Jokes. Every so often I get hits on the posting through Google. I checked the Google page and saw some other Retirement Joke Pages and thought I'd check it out. Perhaps 'borrow' some items to update my collection.

The first one I hit was a gentleman selling books. Nice if you need 'em. The second I clicked on took me to RetirementSayings.com - A bunch of adverts. No Jokes. - Wait! - Here it is! Related Links/Retirement Jokes. - CLICK - Ok. Another advert page. Oh! Here's one. Retirement Jokes - 10,000's of fresh jokes, free! Quick search. Every joke category. - CLICK -

WHAT???

Download free JOKE TOOLBAR???

Toolbars are not a JOKE!!!

What is this outfit? try.starware.com huh! OK! Google Search.
- Dum, de dum dum. - Stopbadware.org Report - That's the one - CLICK -

We find that the Starware News Toolbar is not badware, although it does engage in behaviors that users should be aware of.

We currently recommend that users who want to download Starware News Toolbar be aware of the behaviors outlined in this report.
Redirects invalid web addresses
Replaces legitimate error pages with its own
Displays inline ads and pop-under ads

To their defense a note on the sidebar says:
08/15/2006 - Starware.com contacted StopBadware.org regarding our report on Starware News Toolbar. They have expressed a desire to work with us to bring Starware News Toolbar into conformance with our recommendations.

and

09/19/2006 - We have confirmed that the toggling off of the SiteAdvisor button by Starware News Toolbar is due to idiosyncracies in Internet Explorer's handling of toolbars, not malicious intent on the part of Starware. Since Starware News Toolbar has now been found to be in compliance with our recommendations, we find it to no longer be badware.

Well that is cool that the Starware Toolbar folks work to clean up their reputation. I wonder how the uninstall works? Gotta be better than Zango!

Well, I'm not going to be the one to find out.

Any volunteers?


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Technorati Tags -
Humor -
Toolbars -
Internet -
Starware.com -
Caution -

Zango - 180Solutions - Scams, Problems and Headaches!

Since I posted on Zango on Sept 30, 06 I've been getting a lot of visitors typing in "Daniel and the Bus" with or without "Zango" tagged on. I can only surmise that people get to the point I wrote about in my posting (Zango wants to download an .EXE file) and they back off to check it out first. Good for them!

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UPDATE! - Some people coming by only want to see the video, Daniel and the Bus, and could care less about Zango. They know it is bad stuff. - So! here is a link to go see the video free for nothing! Without mucking up your computer. -

Some of the other stuff on this webpage is tawdry at best. Surf there at your own risk. Especially since Zango owns the site!

- http://"target="_blank">http://www.tacobomb.com/html/Guy-Jumps-Under-Bus.html -

For those wishing to know more about Zango continue reading...
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I can only feel sorry for those who click to download and then install the program. It comes from a company that can only be described as disreputable at best.

Benjamin Edelman has a webpage entitled, The Effect of 180solutions on Affiliate Commissions and Merchants which says this:

Software from 180solutions (also known as MetricsDirect) redirects many affiliate commissions to 180. As a result, merchants pay commissions to 180 (and its advertiser partners) even when no commissions are payable under the terms and conditions of merchants' affiliate programs, and even when commissions are properly payable to other affiliates. 180 causes these commissions to be paid via at least 84 different affiliate accounts, using multiple intermediary domain names that redirect affiliate tracking HTTP traffic, making 180's activities particularly difficult to track and to prevent.

prying1 sez:
I'm not a brilliant person but that sounds disreputable to me. Some people think that 180solutions and Zango are trying to clean up their act but until they do and get a proven track record it is best to avoid them.

Quotes from Spywareinfo.com's Forums re: Zango

Zango.com is related to 180solutions, Inc. - a well known Adware supplier - we help plenty of people get 180solutions infections off their computers. Beware of installing anything from them - you may get more than you bargained for.

Like maybe the Zango Search Assistant? From Zango: "While the Software is installed on your computer, Zango may collect information about you and the websites you visit."

I had Zango on my PC, and at first thought it was a game site that my daughter had downloaded. For a couple days, I didn't bother looking into it, but then IE kept getting redirected to Zango.com at startup.

My firewall was screaming that a couple of .exe programs were attempting to send info out. I did not recognize the dns they were going to, so I ran SB S&D, Ad-Aware, and HiJack this and they discovered quite a few problems: Browser hijacker, adware, spyware, and the toolbar was loaded with ads which were always different.

I cleaned up all remnants of Zango, and the PC was fine again.

I would suggest re-thinking using Zango.

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Technorati Tags -
Zango -
180solutions -
adware spybots -

Zango? Questionable Practices? You Decide!

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UPDATE! - Some people coming by only want to see the video, Daniel and the Bus, and could care less about Zango. They know it is bad stuff. - So! here is a link to go see the video free for nothing! Without mucking up your computer. -

Some of the other stuff on this webpage is tawdry at best. Surf there at your own risk. Especially since Zango owns the site!

- http://"target="_blank">http://www.tacobomb.com/html/Guy-Jumps-Under-Bus.html -

For those wishing to know more about Zango continue reading...
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I was planning on posting a bit on the Military Commissions Act - The U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives have passed this new legislation proposed by President Bush on the treatment and trials of terror suspects in U.S. custody. It is expected the President will sign it into law soon (If he hasn't already).

But as I was surfing for more information I came across a Guardian Unlimited (UK) webpage that had a short Macromedia Flash shot. "YOU WON'T BELIEVE YOUR EYES" it says. Then it shows a kid running in front of a bus and laying down in front of it. Looks lke his plan is to be lying between the bus wheels as it passes over him. "SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH." in the middle of the advert is a forward arrow (>) for you to see what happens next.

Not being squeamish I clicked on it and a new window opened for ZANGO.com whose slogan is, "With Zango – You’re Good to Go(TM)" - They also give this blurb - Zango offers a vast network of free ad-supported games, videos and downloads powered by proprietary and revolutionary time-shifted advertising technology. Zango allows users, publishers, content providers and advertisers to connect within one unique online community. - Also on the page was a lot of screenshots of various videos you can watch.

Hey, there is the not too smart kid labeled, "Daniel and the bus". OK click on it and...

Another page pops up.

Big button says WATCH - OK. Click on that and...

Another window pops up for me to download some software called "Setup.exe".

It must be safe right? I mean the Guardian Unlimited (UK) would not send me to a website that would download bad software on my computer would they? - But! Maybe I should be digging a little deeper before I click on this one. (Didja notice how I got my slogan in that last sentence? Pretty spiffy huh?)

Ok, The quick version. On the page where the word WATCH is most prominent is a lot of info in smaller type. At this point Zango is looking to download, free for nothing, a TOOLBAR and SEARCH ASSISTANT.

- quotes -
Zango Toolbar, accessible whenever you browse the Internet, may display ads within the Toolbar itself based upon keywords from your Internet browsing. Buttons in the Toolbar let you access relevant offers.

- Zango Search Assistant (Zango SA) provides free access to Daniel and the Bus and all Zango-supported content across the Internet and, in exchange, may display to you several ads per day based upon keywords from your Internet browsing. These ads will pop up on your computer screen in a separate browser window.
- end quotes -

On this page is a box PRECHECKED to say "By clicking watch, I represent that I (1) am at least 18, (2) agree to the terms of the EULA above and (3) consent to access Daniel and the Bus."

Digging a little deeper (Hey! My slogan fit in this post again! This time with a cap!) I found one complaint of difficulty in removing the installed program (Could have looked harder and expect I would have found more) and I've found that a lot of Myspace users have been putting some cool little video clips on their websites. Pasting the code for the moviefile into the Myspace profile and having it autoplay when someone visits the page, is enough to have the licence prompt appear.


vitalsecurity.org has a piece on this outfit that questions the prechecked box.
- Quote - Myspace is (or was) all about the kids, right? Minimum age is now 14, their "safety tips" page links to a bunch of sites called Safeteens, Webwisekids and Netsmartz. Browse around randomly and it's confirmed. Kids, kids, kids.

Which just makes the pre-ticked checkbox for the Zango installer (18 or over) even more ironic and useless than it already is when applied to a landscape like this. Of course, videofiles that launch Adware aren't a new thing - though creating a distribution method like this is pretty inventive. - End Quote -

I guess this posting is just a reminder to be careful out there. If you don't mind Adware and search redirects then go for it. I'm not putting any links to Zango on this posting. - You will have to go digging a little deeper to find it yourself...

Hey! Three times on one posting!

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Advertising -