Hopefully you made it through the long weekend without suffering too much of a diet induced coma. Me? I made it through just fine, got a bit of work done, and most importantly, got a fair bit of rest in. So, as you’re rubbing your eyes with fingers perhaps still covered in stuffing and thinking how much you really don’t want to face that turkey sandwich you brought for lunch, let’s catch up on the events of this rather long weekend.

Smiling for the Camera

Wednesday there was an invasion of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. The attacks were launched from the water and instead of being quick suicide attacks, the tactics marked a shift towards a more military invasion. The targets were chosen from a more philosophical standpoint (a couple of pro-Western hotels, a Western-style restaurant) as well as a practical reasons (a gas station was blown up, a busy train station was attacked). Several locations became lengthy hostage standoffs.

Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving. And with it came the Macy’s Parade. This year’s parade saw a twist that displayed just how large the digital divide really is. The twist? The Cartoon Network Rick Rolled the parade. Those of us on the connected side of the divide had to explain to those on the other side just what that odd combination of funny and sad was. Things only got worse Friday when Barry Manilow covered “Never Going to Give You Up” (warning: video) on the Today show – rather than simply cutting to a video of it. Thanks, Manilow, for officially ending the trend.

Friday, of course, saw its own share of tragedy. A part-time employee, Jdimytai Damour (aged 34) was killed by a stampede of holiday shoppers rushing through the broken doors of a Walmart in Long Island. He was purportedly holding the doors shut against the more than 2000 people lined up for ironically titled “door buster” sales. Such sales saw shoving matches for items like the Xbox 360 Guitar Hero combination. And in California, a shoving and shouting match between two women escalated into a shooting match between their two men. According to the AP, the event had nothing to do with the Black Friday shopping deals. No word yet on whether it was about Rick Rolling.

On Friday night, Rosie O’donnell’s Variety show premiered to record few people. How few? Less than five million viewers. NBC doesn’t look like it’s going to pick up the show. One’s left to wonder, with guest like “Alanis Morissette, Alec Baldwin, Clay Aiken, Ne-Yo and Liza Minnelli,” how couldn’t they?

The weekend saw good news, however. The rioting in Jos which had claimed the lives of hundreds, was apparently brought under control. The riot was started over claims that the Nigerian elections were rigged. Citizens of Jos, one of the largest cities in Nigeria, suffered hundreds of fatalities by the time the rioting was quelled on Sunday. At this time, it is unknown how princes were affected. Also on Sunday, the last remnants of the terrorists who invaded Mumbai were swept from the hotels. The final death count has fallen to 174.

Your Net on Bot - Photo from Infiltrated.Net

And finally, Srizbi’s back! Everyone’s favorite little Trojan, the botnet responsible for up to 50% or even 75% of the spam on the internet recently lost all central control when hosting provider McColo had their internet providers all ditch them at once. However, a temporary connection was opened into McColo last week. This allowed those responsible for the Srizbi spam wave to purportedly pull out the necessary control elements, relocating the spam haven to a hosting company in Estonia. Once setup, it was only time before computers infected with Srizbi worked through a list of seemingly random domain names to find the new home of our Spam Overlords. This is the logical reason why you’re looking at heavy spam in your inbox or junk mail box, after a week or two of mere trickles.
Things aren’t all gravy for Srizbi, however. IDG is reporting that Starline Web Services (the new home for Srizbi) has pulled the plug. It took about a week for me to see a marked decline in spam after McColo was shut off, so hopefully this weekend shall bear better news.

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