VinceChan.net

I must say that I’m shocked at the way things have developed in the last 2 weeks. First, Blue Security gets heavily attacked by a heavyweight Russian spammer. Then, it defiantly restarted operation… until now.

BlueSecurity.com is now documenting its last days on its home page. I’ve re-posted their surrender here for you.

When we founded Blue Security in 2004, we believed that if we automated a way for users to rise up and exercise their rights under the CAN-SPAM Act, we could reduce the amount of spam on the Internet.

Over the past few months we were able to leverage the power of the Blue Community and convince top spammers responsible for sending over 25% of the world’s spam to comply with our users’ opt-out list. We were making real progress in eliminating spam from the lives of our users.

However, several leading spammers viewed this change as a strategic threat to their spam business. The week before last, these spammers launched a series of attacks against us, taking down hundreds of thousands of other websites via a massive Denial-of-Service attack and causing damage to ISPs, website owners and Internet users worldwide. They also began a relentless campaign of email intimidation against many members of the Blue Community.

After recovering from the attack, we determined that once we reactivated the Blue Community, spammers would resume their attacks. We cannot take the responsibility for an ever-escalating cyber war through our continued operations.

As we cannot build the Blue Security business on the foundation we originally envisioned, we are discontinuing all of our anti-spam activities on your behalf and are exploring other, non spam-related avenues for our technological developments. As much as it saddens us, we believe this is the responsible thing to do.

You need not do anything as a result of this change. We will continue to protect your names and addresses and honor all privacy commitments we made to you.

We have concluded we should not take Blue Security to the full deployment stage we originally planned to achieve, but we are proud of what we have accomplished thus far as a young startup company.

We are extremely proud to have had the chance to work with such a devoted and dedicated community: thank you for the vote of confidence you gave us over the past few months as well as the particularly vocal support you have shown over the last two weeks.

We will be innovating and building our technology in new, other directions and will continue to give back to you, our Community.

Thank you for your support,

The Blue Security Team.

Has the Blue Security homepage been hacked? If not, then it may explain why my BlueFrog software has not been able to connect the past few days. When did they offically give up? I’m truly dissappointed that a good idea did not gain more traction. I want to add that I did not condone the methods that they employed to combat the spammer’s DOS attacks. Every war, even those on the internet, must have its casaulties and unfortunately, email users will still have to put up with spammers. That’s where I don’t like the message to end up being.

Update: Wired News seems to be the first of the major internet publications to write about this story too. They broke the news 4 hours before I made my surprised visit to Blue Security.

Update 2: As far as I can tell, Guardian Unlimited was the next one with their copy. I’m glad to feel that blogs can break stories with the best of them!

BlueSecurity is an innovative way to give spammers a taste of their own medicine. I joined the network in hopes of reducing my spam one day. Many people have been critical about the idea; indicting BlueSecurity’s tactics as vigilante actions that border the edge of ethical practices. However, after reading a thorough intelligent evaluation of BlueSecurity, I was more convinced than ever that the movement will work.

BlueSecurity’s sevice can be summed up in three stages:

• creating a Do-Not-Email list through member participation
• finding and giving initial warning to spamming offenders that have spammed members
• sending one complaint for every subsequent re-offence (in my opinion, a fair response for a re-offence)

BlueSecurity is also making progress. They documented on their blog whenever a major spamming network that have agreed to comply with the Do-Not-Email list. However, other spammers are not as quick to admit defeat, or respect our wishes to be emailed. I received several emails today threatening to take agressive action against BlueSecurity. BlueSecurity identified that one major spammer was taking on a vendetta to discourage the anti-spam community. Here’s the email I received:

Hey,

You are recieving this email because you are a member of BlueSecurity (http://www.bluesecurity.com).

You signed up because you were expecting to recieve a lesser amount of spam, unfortunately, due to the tactics used by BlueSecurity, you will end up recieving this message, or other nonsensical spams 20-40 times more than you would normally.

How do you make it stop?

Simple, in 48 hours, and every 48 hours thereafter, we will run our current list of BlueSecurity subscribers through BlueSecurity’s database, if you arent there.. you wont get this again.

We have devised a method to retrieve your address from their database, so by signing up and remaining a BlueSecurity user not only are you opening yourself up for this, you are also potentially verifying your email address through them to even more spammers, and will end up getting up even more spam as an end-result.

By signing up for bluesecurity, you are doing the exact opposite of what you want, so delete your account, and you will stop recieving this.

Why are we doing this?

Its simple, we dont want to, but BlueSecurity is forcing us. We would much rather not waste our resources and send you these useless mails.

It is hard not to sense the desperation in this spammer’s response.

BlueSecurity is hoping to do more than just deter spammers by letting them know that we won’t read their emails. In addition, Blue Security reports stock and securities-related junk E-mails to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and also reports sites that sell counterfeit software to the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

As of this writing, BlueSecurity.com is unaccessible. I guess this particular spammer is launching massive denial-of-service attacks on the site. I should also disclose that I have not seen a significant decrease to my spam level yet. Nobody said that this would be an easy war, but I hope more people can see through the short-term pain for the long-term gain.

Update: Just discovered that this incident was SlashDotted! Woot! Looks like I blogged the story before SlashDot!

More Update: BlueSecurity.com is back up and details the exploits of one desperate spammer’s (PharmaMaster) attempts to discourage the community.

I’m strapped into my seat, ready to watch the election coverage on TV! This year’s vote has stirred up much debate of late. Canadian Bloggers everywhere have been voicing their views. I have also joined the swarrey. To keep it short, I’d like to point out 2 very interesting sites. I wish I had known them earlier during the campaign. Canadian innovation is extending out towards the elections on the web!

BuyMyVote.ca – a site for disgruntled voters to lash back at the system!
HowdTheyVote.ca – a great site for people to research how their local incumbents have voted in Parliament, their attendance etc.

Bloggers everywhere (or if you are an aspiring blogger) take note! Yahoo! is having its $2.99 domain sale again. Often you come up with an idea for a blog or website but cannot find the right domain. This is your chance to grab these online real estate (my analogy for domains) before they are snatched up. Personally, I will be picking up a few domains for my future projects.

You can register a domain for USD$2.99 per year up to 5 years at one time. Yahoo! also offers complete DNS control which means if you are fortunate to sign up with DreamHost (a great hosting service in my opinion), you can host unlimited number of domains with one great hosting provider while registering your domains very cheaply with Yahoo! Register your ideas now!

Note: The normal Yahoo! domain price USD$9.95 is not cheap. If you are chasing cheap domain name registration fee, you may want to register for as long as possible (5 years) and transfer domain name before your domain name offer expires.

Update: I had registered one domain name and when I tried to give Yahoo my repeat business, they said that the $2.99 domain offer is only valid for first time buyers! Imagine my surprise! I definitely suggest that if you want to take Yahoo up on this offer to do as many domains as your heart’s content. Don’t spread it out at different times!

Just a short entry today. Here’s a link to a pretty funny and exciting story about an EBay powerbook seller turning the scam around to a buyer in London. I really enjoy such stories!

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/index.html

That was quick! Within 24 hours of dropping my first BlogCritics post. My homepage has risen 2 spots from #3 to kicking butt at #1 on the Google search engine? Don’t believe me? Take a look!

I wasn’t pleased to find out that I could not get VinceChan.com, but I made the best of it with the .net domain registration. My other namesake counter-egos are more than welcome to wrestle back the top spot, but for now I will savour the moment of delicious victory!

Sometime this afternoon, I’ve decided to jump back in on the instant messaging scene. The decision was as quick as the day I got out of instant messaging. I believe I was one of the earliest adopters of the communication technology (my ICQ uins were low digit numbers). But for one reason of another, I woke up one day entirely fed up with replying, messaging, and dealing with instant messaging pop-ups, looking at lists of names that meant little to nothing because we have not kept in touch. I turned it off cold turkey.

That must have been almost a year ago?? I’m not sure when I exactly stopped. But it was a strangely liberating experience. In this day and age of technology and busy work schedules, my contacts with my already established circle of friends abruptly stopped. I begin to know who really wants me in their life by those who still kept in touch with me through email and phone… and also discover for myself with whom I really want to stay in touch.

Call it an experiment if you will, a validation of sorts. But at the same time, I developed new acquaintances, people with whom I don’t rely on instant messaging to stay in touch. In some ways, instant message is a bit of an evil in this brave new world. But I think I’m jumping back for the right reasons. We’ll really see how this new experiment will pan out.

For fans of internet surfing, you might have heard about StumbleUpon.com already. StumbleUpon is actually a toolbar that attaches to your browser (and they support many browser applications), and you can randomly stumble upon a site that has been reviewed. You can also review a particular site that you’re on.

Maybe I will or will not like that feature, but what has happened to StumbleUpon from the first time I saw it (which was months ago), was that in a very short time. It has evolved into a very good social networking application, perhaps more so than what was initially imagined for the application.

I absolutely love the interface. It is so easy to talk about yourself or show your likes and dislikes. The categories are created by the users, and they can also be inter-related to each other. In a very short time tonight, I have done what I could not do with any other application, that is to put a big list of TV shows, Movies and Music genres/artists on my About page. I am seriously considering this to be my ‘About Me’ page on this website too!

Here’s the link to my page on StumbleUpon (if you look closely, I’m actually very brutally honest in a certain way!): http://vincechan.stumbleupon.com/about/

I also took a test, The Jung personality test, on that website to determine my personality. I guess the test was devised by Carl Jung, and this was my result

INFP – “Questor”. High capacity for caring. Emotional face to the world. High sense of honor derived from internal values. 4.4% of total population.

I like to agree with the assessment. I wonder with 4.4% of the the total population, am I in the elite category? For those of you who know me personally and think you know me through my writing, do you agree with this assessment?

This must be record for my blog! It is the latest/earliest (depends on how you look at it) time I’ve written a post. 4:39 am in the morning and I’m not asleep yet! It’s strangely liberating! I would advise you to try it sometime! It’s almost like a journey back to highschool where you really don’t care what’s supposed to happen in the next day. You’re just living for the now!

So there must be a reason why I’m still awake, right? A geeky one too! I have been aware of the great social networking experiment that is 43Things.com, but I never took the plunge. I like the idea of making a list, and I have been searching for something like it, but the features didn’t seem like what I wanted. How wrong I was, after signing up an account, I could not put down the site.

The reason I wanted to make a list of things I want to do in my life is possibliy an introspective quest. I like to write, because I like to find out what I’m really thinking; what I can commit to words. Many times, things just bubble in your mind, but there’s no expression of it.

I had a lot of fun just entering my thoughts on all the various places I have been since 43Places.com is well-integrated into 43Things.com. When I got to Montreal, I was so surprised to see one of the FlickR picture streams to feature my cousin, Susan! It looked like her, but was it her? I clicked on the link and find my cousin Diane’s account on FlickR. Diane (pictured on the right) is extremely artistic, and I have an amazing time just looking at all the pictures she took.

Back to 43Things, and I found Diane’s username. I subscribed to her and even “cheered” her on a few things on her list. Cheering is fun! I do support Diane wholeheartedly in whatever she does or decides. In some ways, I admire and resepct what she’s represented. I also feel she’s most similar to my personality, out of all my cousins, in many regards. And she’s a Beyond fan too! (Editor’s note: ‘Beyond’ is a Hong Kong rock band that has blazed many trails and influence greatly the Chinese rock scene).

Then I got down to committing what I’ve wanted to do in my life. One by one, my ideas materialize on the screen, keystroke after keystroke. I’d re-read the entries that described my goals, to look for spelling or grammatical errors. Re-reading these entries were a chatartic experience. I will be integrating 43Things.com to my website shortly so that it’ll be a permanent fixture. For now, I want to share with you 2 of my goals, my description of them. I’ve chosen these 2 as they are emotionally significant for myself.

You can check the rest of my Things-To-Do list at http://www.43things.com/person/vincechan

Goal: Fall In Love
Entry Title: It Must Have Been Love …

Two failed relationships. One of my own choosing, one while I was still too young. But what has kept me from going forward are the relationships that never happened. I know what I want, and I know what I like. I cannot describe it in words. But what you want, what you like, may not want or like you. Could it be fate? I personally don’t subscribe to that; love is what you make of it. But try telling one side of the brain that, while that side stubbornly refuses to listen.

I’m now reminded of my favourite songwriter, Tanya Chua’s lyrics, translated from mandarin. “Everybody yearns for the next time to be true love, but regretably, one day when we remenisce about each other, then we will understand.”

Note: The entry title is an homage to my aunt Fanny’s love affair with Roxette’s song “It Must Have Been Love”

Goal: Raise A Daughter
Entry Title: picked out my daughter’s name and everything!

well.. this is a goal I cannot control; except if you tell me to sow a lot of seeds to increase the odds! LOL

I only had a brother growing up, but the majority of my cousins were all female and treated me well. I don’t know if that explains why I would rather have a daughter than the obligatory chinese son. I have one rationale for that, the chinese character for good is made up of 2 characters, girl and boy. And the character for girl comes before the boy. ;P

I have names picked out already. Of course, until the day comes, I am still open to name suggestions. I have 2 choices for chinese names, and 2 choices for english names. I love my daughter to have a name that sounds like a boy’s name.

I don’t mind sharing with you, but my daughter’s english name will tentatively be either Aaliyah or Owen. I hope to find more interesting names to name her. The chinese names would sound either like Chen Li-Yah (beautiful elegant), or Chen Kai-Nan (triumphant boy) in mandarin (literal translations).

Nas once wrote these lyrics, “thinkin a word best describin my life, to name my daughter”. I may not be that good, or that introspective.. but it’s an important goal of mine!

And no, the wife probably won’t have a say in this, she can name the son whatever she likes.. LOL

Now maybe I can go to bed?

I started this weblog as a way for me to practice writing about anything I wanted. But one always wonder, if nobody is there to hear my voice, do I sound like one hand clapping? Therefore, I embarked on a mission to publicize this website a little bit more.

That in itself is nothing of interest, but I did encounter a novel way to connect with people, the people around you in your area who have blogs or websites. It’s called GeoTagging. You input a geo position tag in your website and have it indexed by a service such as GeoURL or A2B GeoLocation, and you can start finding out who else have a web prescence and also live near your location!

You can find your geo position by searching for it on MultiMap.com. Then just add the following info (see my example) on your site homepage’s header and ping the 2 indexing services.

<meta name=”geo.position” content=”43.8109;-79.32″>
<meta name=”geo.placename” content=”Scarborough, Ontario”>
<meta name=”geo.region” content=”CA-ON”>
<meta name=”DC.title” content=”VinceChan.net”>

Check out who are my web neighbours (within 30 km) here!