Links and things that I’ve run across recently.
The journey begins…
Walking in the Moment between Tick and Tock: From Passover to Pentecost
“The journey from chaos to fulfillment begins…â€
On Tuesday, I assigned the ISBN for the eBook edition of Walking in the Moment Between Tick and Tock“: 978-0-9816925-6-2.
I told Bowker about it, so I’m committed now. I told them it was to be released on June 20, which happens to be my birthday.
I also put the book up on GoodReads.
All I have left is to finish up the formatting, then upload to Amazon, B&N, and Kobo. But I’m also giving away copies of the ebook with its launch, through Father’s Day and my Birthday and the beginning of Summer—the beginning of Party Season. So stay tuned.
The Truth about Bananas
Apropos of nothing, a couple of photos I happened across on Flickr:
The top photo, as fans of the X-Files may know, spells emet, the Hebrew word for “truth.” The bottom photo sketches out the letters bet nun nun hey, which spells… Well… Guess.
A Fairly Sophisticated Email Break-in
This past week, a fairly sophisticated cracker broke into a friend’s Yahoo Mail account. He obviously read her email, in order to craft a scam that would sound convincing. He sent out to her friends (including moi) a variation of the “We were mugged! Please send money!” scam.
The thing was, this particular message the scammer crafted to include convincing personal details. It actually sounded like it could have been written by my friend. The message was written using fairly correct English, and it told a heart-wrenching story about how she and her husband (called by name) were visiting Manilla, Philippines, and they were mugged, and the robber stole all their cash, credit cards, and cell phones, and her husband had been injured and was in the hospital, but fortunately they still had their passports, though the US embassy was being less than helpful, and their flight was about to leave, but they needed to settle up with the hotel before the hotel manager would let them leave, and they needed money, and we were their last chance, so please send money.
Fortunately, I don’t think anyone was fooled, although numerous friends started asking—via other channels—whether they were actually in the Philippines, because none of us had heard that they had been planning a trip to the Philippines (because they hadn’t). And when we next saw each other, we had a nice laugh about it. But my friend still lost all her stored mail on that Yahoo Mail account, and all her stored contacts, and has since switched over to GMail.
Then, the next day, another friend had her Yahoo Mail cracked. (Though I don’t know any details of that incident.)
This prompted me to do a little research, which uncovered the following post: “How To Protect Your Yahoo Mail Against Hackers.” (Hint: it’s harder and stupider than it ought to be.)
Today’s Quote
We fear that when we stop, even for a moment, the sheer enormity of our lives will overwhelm us, we’ll be suffocated by its sorrows and its pains.
(Rabbi David Ingber)