This is a true cybercrime story, which hit my friend Tom. Click here to read the story from the beginning. OR Click here to read the whole story as a single page. (If you’re looking for my usual “Friday Fun” column, it will return next week.) Continue reading “Grand Theft Internet (part 3)”
Grand Theft Internet
Illustration © 2009 Michael Molenda CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Like any other small businessman, he assumed his Internet account was basically safe. Instead, he found himself another victim of the latest 21’st century crime wave, when his valuable domain name, VL.com, was hijacked in a high-tech heist. Told by a first-person witness to the crime, reconstructed from forensic evidence compiled in the aftermath, this gripping account takes you inside the mind of the attacker, showing in lay terms how domain thiefs bypass security at Internet registrars, and why domain name theft is a growing problem on the Internet that could strike any of us.
This is the detailed story of how VL.com was stolen. Click here for Domain Name Wire’s report on the incident.
Also available as a free downloadable eBook:
(Last updated April 3, 2010.) Continue reading “Grand Theft Internet”
All About “Becomingâ€: An Interview with Linda Boulanger
Today, I’ve invited Linda Boulanger to visit me in my virtual living room, to talk about her latest book Becoming, which is a collection of inspirational, faith-based short-short stories.
Hi, Linda.
Hi, Tim!
Becoming starts with a story about a young woman whose father bails her out of jail, which will inevitably have political repercussions for him.
The story is called “A Ready Heart.” It’s actually one of my favorites. I’ve been asked multiple times by individuals if they can use the story with their youth groups, this one and “Sweet Success for My Teen & Me,” which is also in the book. I believe it is because the story clearly focuses not on the fact that we make mistakes, but more so on what we do with the lessons learned from those mistakes.
That’s a wonderful theme. Continue reading “All About “Becomingâ€: An Interview with Linda Boulanger”
New Release: Free Romance eStory for eReaders
I’ve majorly revised “The Widow’s Granddaughter,” a short story (about 12,000 words) I wrote a few years ago.
This is the story of Marietta, a pretty, young woman who has had one bad relationship after another, starting with her parents. Fortunately, they were gone for most of her life. She grew up living with her grandparents. Having returned home, she now finds her life taking a turn for the better, after she seduces a man as a bribe to help her grandmother.
I’m releasing it as a free downloadable eBook:
-TimK
P.S. Note: the official page for the eStory is over at my eBooks blog. That post has the same links as above, but if you liked the story, please comment over there! I’d love to hear about what you thought of it.
The Birthday Season Upon Us
The Little One, my little niece, and me, all playing MarioKart at my parents' for the first birthday celebration of the season.
I divide my year into two roughly equal seasons: the Holiday Season and the Birthday Season.
The Holiday Season stretches from September through February, during which the days get shorter, the air colder, the leaves more colorful (brown is a color). We start playing Christmas music, unpack the electric menorah, and put up the holiday star. The Holiday Season smells like cold air, dry heat, and pine, and it feels like candy and thanksgiving and NFL football.
The Birthday Season comprises the remaining months of the year. During the Birthday Season, we celebrate all the birthdays of the year (except for my Beloved’s, whose falls during the Holiday Season). It used to begin on the first day of Spring, because the only birthday that fell in early March was my brother’s. But then my other brother married a March girl, and my Beloved and I had a March baby, and so now the first official celebration of the Birthday Season occurs early in March. Continue reading “The Birthday Season Upon Us”
Depression: An Interview with Author Sharon Cathcart
I’m sitting here in my virtual living room with author Sharon Cathcart, to talk about psychological depression—which I’ve had my own experiences with, as you may know if you’ve been following this blog for any length of time.
Sharon has been a journalist, a newspaper editor, and an award-winning poet. Now, she’s authored a novel, In the Eye of the Beholder, as well as a memoir—more a collection of thoughts on various subjects—called Les Pensées Dangereuses, “Dangerous Thoughts.”
Hi, Sharon.
Hi, Tim.
In Les Pensées Dangereuses, you talk about your experiences with depression. Some people think depression means that your brain has basically shut down, that you’re not even thinking anymore.
Not at all. Everyone’s experience is different, but in my case—and in the case of many people whose work I have read or with whom I have spoken—the opposite was true. I couldn’t stop thinking. There were so many ideas whirling around in my head, like a carousel that was out of control. None of the ideas had a chance to get off and stand on their own. It is easy under those circumstances to feel overwhelmed and helpless—as though starting any task, even a tiny bit of it, is monumental and impossible because of the relentless thinking. Much of the thinking in depression is distorted to boot—it doesn’t bear up with the reality of situations in many cases. Continue reading “Depression: An Interview with Author Sharon Cathcart”
Depression and the Software Developer: The Last Straw (Conclusion)
Photo © 2007 Jason Eppink CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Another part of this series of posts, “Depression and the Software Developer.” This latest story I started on Monday, part 4 of “Depression and the Software Developer”.
[Note: You can read the story from the beginning in order to catch up.]
No client or employer will ever admit to you that he doesn’t want to deal with reality. What he really wants is for you to just deliver what he needs, with zero effort on his part, in zero time, for zero dollars. If he gives you any more than that, it is only in grudging acceptance of the fact that you are not the omnipotent God. But a surprising number of project managers still act as though developers are superhuman, even if they accept that we are not divine. And a surprising number of developers are willing to accept that they are superhuman, even if they can’t deliver the actual goods.
And that was the case with this project. So I had no idea what made up the NOKWID feature that I was supposed to be developing (called NOKWID, because No One Knew What It Did), and Pointy-Hair 1 (the developer-turned-manager) and Pointy-Hair A (the manager-turned-developer) both seemed to be going out of their way to keep me in the dark.
If I were a voice talent, it would be like giving me a stack of ill-digested notes scribbled on sticky pads and saying, “Okay. Here’s the voice-over script. We need this by Thursday. When can you have it recorded?”
Needless to say, it stressed me out. Continue reading “Depression and the Software Developer: The Last Straw (Conclusion)”
