I just received this message in my Facebook inbox from a friend...

Sorry that I had to send this message. Since Facebook has recently become very popular, has become the many complaints that Facebook has become unacceptably slow. The report shows that the reason is that Facebook has a number of non-active members and, secondly, many new Facebook members. We want to send this message to see whether you're active members or not. If you're active, can you send this message to at least 15 users. Use the "Copy - Cut and Paste" to show that you are still active. Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks in, will be removed in order to get more space. Send this message to your friends to show me that you are still active, and do not want to be removed.

Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg

There are a few things about this that make it unbelievable:
1- Your data on Facebook is too valuable to them to delete, whether you're active, inactive or new. Combine that with the fact that they've really nailed how to store a ton of data and how to keep Facebook fast and it comes down to this message being a lie.
2- If this was an official Facebook announcement from Mark Zuckerberg, he wouldn't have people forward it around. It would be posted clearly on Facebook's site.

I'm pretty sure that Facebook doesn't ever delete anything, so I'm guessing they'll be able to trace the root source of this hoax and act on the offender's account appropriately.

Got this message from Amazon today:

Hello.
This is a notification that your volume vol-XXXXXXXX experienced a failure due to multiple failures of
the underlying hardware components and was unable to be recovered. We recommend recovering from your
most recent snapshot.
We regret the loss and inconvenience.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX

Fortunately, this was on a mysql slave and it was easy to recover from a previous snapshot. Do you plan for failure of the systems you run on Amazon EC2?

I just added the newly announced "Like" button to my blog. It's very easy to do on Drupal.

First, enable PHP input format...
In Drupal 6, the PHP input format is not enabled by default - it has to be enabled by enabling an additional module. So go to admin/build/modules and enable:
PHP filter 6.8 Allows embedded PHP code/snippets to be evaluated.

Next, create your new block...
Go to #Administer, #Site building, #Blocks
Click on the "add blocks" tab
Enter in a Block description and put the following in the Block body:

<iframe id="iframe_like" name="fbLikeIFrame_0" class="social-iframe" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?width=100&amp;show_faces=1&amp;layout=standard&amp;href=<?php $curr_url = check_plain("http://" .$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] .$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']); echo $curr_url; ?>" width=100 height=300></iframe>


Change the "Input format" to "PHP Code"

Save it and you're done!

I just got these in the mail for performancebike.com

10% off any bike - code: Ride10

15% off any item (excluding bikes) - code: Ride15

I recently upgraded my systems to Kubuntu 9.10 and when I plug in my Treo 755p to charge, it keeps rebooting over and over.

The fix is simple. Add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:
blacklist visor

and reboot...

I just received my first facebook phishing email.

It looks pretty legit. The obvious thing that stood out to me was that the link points to www.facebook.com.xxxasqwz.eu/globaldirectory/LoginFacebook.php. Note that the domain is xxxasqwz.eu, not facebook.

Here is a snapshot of the page on xxasqwz.eu:

If you login here, you'll be giving a phisher your username and password.

If you receive email that appears to be from any site you consider important (banks, social networks, etc...) use caution when clicking on the links within. The best practice is to open a browser and type in the site name (or use your bookmark) to go to the site, then login and look for alerts there. If Facebook was really going to make the login changes mentioned in the email, you'd see something about it when you login (in either your Facebook inbox, notifications or an announcement at the top of the page once you're logged in.)

Don't trust links sent in email. Go to the site like you would normally, login and then look for any announcements or alerts from there.

I have a coupon code for free shipping up to $10 from Calumet Photographic.
I don't see an expiration date for it.
Here is the code: vpw3zz37

Please post a comment here if you use it so others don't waste their time trying to use it.

I have a couple of coupon codes for $5 off your order of $50 or more at thegunsource.com
They are valid through August 9, 2009.
Here are the codes:
235513
235513-F

Please post a comment here if you use either of them so others don't waste their time trying them.

I have an American Express Blue card which includes an RFID chip (because waving your card is so much easier than swiping it.) Unfortunately, if you have one of these (or a credit card with PayPass) your card is vulnerable.

Fortunately, it's easy to disable the RFID chip in your credit card. Here's what I do:

1. Locate the chip - this is easy with my card since it is transparent and I can see the chip. If your card isn't transparent, the chip can be located by finding a slight divot in the plastic (usually on the back.)
   
2. Stab the chip a few times with a sharp object - I use my trusty Leatherman Super Tool, but any sharp object will do. I stab from the back of the card because there's less plastic to go through to get to it. As you stab the chip, you'll feel some crunching or grinding. If you don't then you probably missed the chip.
   
3. Now you can walk around confident your credit card information can't be read over the air by some nefarious evil doer.
   

I have a couple of coupon codes for 10% off your total purchase at Performance Bicycle.
I used one of them but don't remember which one. They are valid through March 29, 2009.
Here are the codes:
10% off - 542
10% off - 543

Short and sweet, but one of them should work! Please post a comment here if you use it so others don't waste their time trying them.