Hotel Wifi JavaScript Injection
So I’m checking my blog on the hotel wifi, like ya do, and I notice something a little off with the style. There’s a dark colored bar at the top of the page that shouldn’t be there. That’s funny. Maybe a recent Firefox update changed how they treat CSS?
Screenshot of Justinsomnia with weird bar circled in red
I probably wouldn’t have thought much of it, except my blog had recently been hacked (someone had gained elevated access to my web hosting account and prepended every single PHP file with a base64 encoded rootkit), so I immediately decided to view the source. Sure enough I saw some unfamiliar CSS and JavaScript that had been injected after the <head> tag (reformatted here for readability):
Emending an esoteric Exif error
From November 2006 until June 2007 (coinciding with my use of Ubuntu’s Edgy Eft v6.10), there was a bug in the old photo importer (or in Gimp, I’m not sure which) that failed to set the Exif orientation tag to 1 (aka top-left) after rotating a photo. This was solved in the following release of Ubuntu, though the fix was somewhat incomplete—as I wrote about in How to fix Eye of Gnome’s photo orientation in Ubuntu Feisty.
What this means is that the vertical photos I edited in Gimp during that time had an Exif orientation tag indicating that the top-left of the image was something other than the top-left as it appeared when I hit save. The funny thing is that Firefox (to this day) completely ignores this orientation tag. So I had no idea there was a bug lurking in the Exif metadata of the photos on my blog.
The first time I discovered the problem came much later, on an iPhone no less. See, Safari does pay attention to the Exif orientation tag (or at least it did—I was unable to reproduce the problem on Stephanie’s iPhone 4), so when it sees a photo that says it needs to be rotated, it rotates it. Which meant Safari was rotating my already rotated photos, rendering those vertical shots from 2006–2007 horizontally in the affected blog posts. I have to say, I’m surprised no one ever brought this to my attention.
iPhone demonstrating my erroneous Exif orientation tag (here’s how it should look: I think this is an Indian Warrior)
Does anyone out there know anything about Pinterest?
I’ve recently seen it show up in my referrer logs, and it turns out a bunch of people I don’t know have “pinned” a bunch of photos from my blog. I feel like this site came out of nowhere.
Screenshot of pinned images from my blog
You can imagine my surprise when I discovered my sister-in-law browsing Pinterest over the holidays with her new Android-based Toshiba Thrive tablet! When did everyone get so high-tech?
I’m famous! (on a TSA sign at Orlando International Airport)
Someone brought this accidental QR Code usage to my attention last August, but thanks to Fred Trotter, O’Reilly Radar’s open source health blogger, who happened to be flying through Orlando recently, I now have photographic proof!
The TSA’s “Hola Niños!” sign at MCO, showing off my QR Code
In his post, The Transportation Security Administration’s QR Code flub, Fred speculates on the ease with which published QR Codes could be hijacked with stickers—and wonders if that was the case here. Think how trivial it would be for an “Anonymous” band of individuals to surreptitiously sticker over TSA QR Codes with ones that link to Bruce Schneier articles. This is the stuff of cyberpunk fiction!
Unfortunately the truth in this case is far more benign. My QR Code was accidentally used as a stand-in by whomever designed the poster, and was never checked before it went to press—not to mention anytime in the four months since it’s been on display.
December Cookie Traffic
I love December, and not just because of my birthday or the holidays—because it’s when people start baking lots of cookies. And inevitably, someone searches Google for a certain long-lost cookie recipe and stumbles upon my Melt-in-the-Mouth history (or my original post about the recipe that inspired it).
Blue is the Melt-in-the-Mouth recipe, red is the history
And the best part is that occasionally they’re so floored to have found the recipe (usually after missing it for several years), they leave a comment to express their heartfelt thanks. Here’s a taste.
From Marlene:
Justin I too had the recipe 25 yrs ago. THANK you for posting this!! My Son still remembers when I made them. Now we can share these with his children!!
From Gina:
My mother has had this recipe for years, since I was a little kid, and I’m 40 now. We used to make them every Thanksgiving and Christmas. But we lost it a few years ago and I’ve been looking for it ever since. I can’t believe I finally found it!!! Thank you!!!!
From Melissa:
I’m just another grown kid searching for childhood cookies! I imagine my mama found this recipe in Woman’s Day like your grandmother did. No one else I knew ever made them, but we loved them. I have my mama’s handwritten recipe but they never come out like hers. I will compare notes tonight and see if she left out any “special” instructions. I look forward to sharing these with my grandkids this Christmas! Thanks for your diligence!
You are welcome, all. Please, help yourself to a cookie:
A plate of Melt-in-the-Mouth cookies
I’m famous! (on a virtual supermarket website in Chile)
Back in July, Andy Baio posted a link about these virtual South Korean grocery stores where people can shop by scanning QR Codes next to photos of the items (while waiting for the subway).
Tesco’s virtual grocery store in South Korea
Well, apparently they’re also making a splash in Chile. I just hope they stock up on lots of tasty Justinsomnia!
Screenshot of Jumbo Mobile in Chile showing off my QR Code
No Justinsomnia in Ghana
I got an email from Terrie in Ghana the other day who told me my blog was being blocked by MTN, a mobile telecom provider in many countries across Africa and the Middle East. But get this. The stated reason why my blog is blocked: because my site falls under the “child abuse content” category. Yikes!
How did I get on that list? And what other lists am I on? I mean, I might have posted the occasional NSFW photo in the past (L’Origine du monde and Christy Turlington come to mind), but “child abuse”? And the real kicker is, I’ve been to Ghana! Back in 2004, I spent two weeks working in Accra and had the opportunity to visit Kakum National Park and Elmina Castle.
Ghanaian “tro-tro” with an apt slogan
Anyway, I sent an email to MTN Ghana’s customer care department. I’ll be curious to see if I get a response.
I’m famous! (in a PayPal concept video)
I got a heads up from Jon Cameron the other day letting me know that PayPal had unveiled a concept video outlining their vision of The Future of Shopping—in which my QR Code plays a prominent role. Here are some screenshots from the video.
Man enters a hardware store and a unique ad catches his eye
Video zooms in on the QR Code in the ad—yep, that’s my QR Code (wait, why did they use your QR Code?)
Man scans the QR Code with his smartphone to get a discount—if you look closely, you’ll see that the QR Code in the ad and the QR Code on the phone don’t match (oops!)
I love the smartphone’s perspective as the man scans the QR Code—which now points to http://www.qrstuff.com/
And the hypothetical finish:
My blog pops up—welcome to “The Future of Shopping”
