Eddie On Everything » internet

Domain Name Registrars Can Be Held Liable For Contributory Trademark Infringement

eddie — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:53:57 +0000

Attention domain parkers and registrars offering “cash parking” and domain monitization services:

Yes, you can be held liable for contributory trademark infringement if you knowingly profit from your clients’ infringement.

So sayeth the Southern District of Florida.

More specifically, the allegations against the defendants included conduct enabling a class of customers comprised of fictitious entities and anonymous individuals to “monetize” counterfeit domain names, acting as their authorized licensee and/or otherwise in concert with them, profiting with them jointly in the process, concealing their identity when challenged, and intentionally or recklessly continuing to supply registration services to them with knowledge that they are fictitious entities engaged in trademark and service mark counterfeiting, or with willful blindness to that fact.

Transamerica Corp. v. Moniker Online Services, 672 F.Supp.2d 1353 (S.D. Fla. 2009)

I think this decision is exactly right – Moniker was essentially trying to argue that they weren’t the ones doing the actual infringing, yet they refused to identify the infringer and continued to profit from the infringement. It’s important to note that simply allowing a client to register an infringing domain name isn’t enough.

In this case, Moniker:

1. Provided registration and monetization services

2. Concealed the registrant’s identity when asked to identify the registrant

3. Allowed the registrant to continue to use its domain parking monetization service, from which Moniker also profited, even though it had knowledge that the registrant was willfully using another’s trademark in a confusingly similar manner

Read the whole decision here: Transamerica Corp. v. Moniker Online Services, 672 F.Supp.2d 1353 (S.D. Fla. 2009)

Your Phone Number is on Facebook – Who Cares?

eddie — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:01:59 +0000

A lot of my Facebook friends keep re-posting this.

Apparently people are outraged that their phone number is available to their Facebook friends.

Why is everyone so concerned?

The message:

PHONE NUMBER IS NOW ON FACEBOOK! Go to the top right of your screen,
click Account then Edit Friends. Go to the left side of yourscreen and
click Phonebook. Everyone’s phone#’s are now being published.Please
repost to let your friends know this is happening so they can remove
……their phone #’s by changing their privacy settings. (Pr…ivacy
Settings- Phone – Customize – Only Me.)

What, are you worried that one of your friends might *gasp* call you?

Yes, if you put your phone number on your Facebook profile, your phone number is on Facebook. Guess what? Your name and picture is on Facebook, too. And if you put in your schools, or hometown, that’s there too.

This is really much ado about nothing, especially considering that if you have your privacy settings set correctly, only your friends can see your phone number.

But even if you have your Facebook profile set to “world readable,” again, I have to ask: Why do you care?

If you’re still worried, I have some other news that might shock you into tomorrow. (You’re gonna want to sit down for this one.) Your phone number is also published in a publicly available directory, right next to your name and address – it’s called the phone book.

Use Google Public DNS To Speed Up Your Browsing Experience

eddie — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:41:30 +0000

A recent comment on an old article about Comcast’s DNS servers being really slow brought something to my attention: Google now offers a public DNS service.

Why use Google public DNS? For starters, it can really speed up your browsing experience. The average webpage requires about a dozen DNS lookups, and these lookups can be quite time consuming. That’s because when a company (your ISP) sets up a DNS server, they normally just set-it-and-forget-it. Google, on the other hand, has specifically engineered their DNS servers to be wicked fast.

There are a couple of other benefits as well, but I’ll leave that explaining to the public DNS page.

The IP addresses are easy to remember, too:

8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Facebook Makes New Layout Changes in February 2010

eddie — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:25:56 +0000

I logged in to my Facebook account today and saw that Facebook has once again changed things up. Since the changes are being rolled out to just a few users right now, here are a few screengrabs of the new layout.

(Click for a larger version.)

It looks like they’ve really cleaned things up – most everything has been moved to the top navigation bar, and account functions are now available via a drop-down menu. Also, the search bar has been expanded, and now occupies the center of the menu bar. Finally, 3 notification icons have been added, ala the Windows system tray – “Friend Requests,” “Messages,” and “Notifications.”

Said one Facebook engineer,

“We’re releasing a set of products designed to improve your everyday experience,” said Facebook engineer Jing Chen in a blog post. “In keeping with our commitment to innovation, these product releases are part of Facebook’s ongoing efforts to streamline the site and make it easier to use.
“For example, when you receive a Facebook notification about someone writing on your Wall or tagging you in a photo, you’ll see a red bubble appear in the left-hand corner, near the search bar. When you click on the icon, you’ll see a drop-down menu with the most recent notifications.”

All in all, I think they succeeded – I really like the new look.

I have to wonder if they are taking aim at Google with the newly prominent search box placement. After all, you can search for literally anything in that box, and the results will show you not only Facebook pages, but internet-wide search results as well.

What do you think? How do you like the new Facebook look and feel?

Searching your Facebook page for “Automation Log” does not show you people who have “Hacked’ your account

eddie — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:53:59 +0000

A recent Facebook hoax reads like this:

IMPORTANT No joke! Apparently multiple people have had a hacker. I tried this and yes he was listed on mine too. The way to find them is to go into your settings, privacy settings, block list, and in the “person” box, type “automation log.” If someone pops up, block them because it seems they’re the hacker. I had 3 names in my block list show up!!!!

The problem is, this is entirely false.

Here’s what’s happening: When you search for “automation log” you are searching for all people with the words “automation log” listed as their employer. It’s as if you were searching for the term “Microsoft,” or “Comcast.” What you are seeing is a list of people who have written that word in their profile, not a list of people who have hacked your account.

As an experiment, I changed my Facebook page to contain the magic words “Automation lab.” Within 10 minutes I had received a couple dozen hate emails. A sampling:

“get a life dude. stop hacking my sh*t”

How the F*CK did you get into my friend’s list?
“I just reported you – LOSER”

“you fu*in freak get a job you fat fu**er specky tw*t!!!!!!!!”

FU* YOU AR** HOLE

“u bin tryin 2 hack me pu**yole?”

“okay so I have to ask you … there is this going aroung on fb. it’s saying there’s hackers…are you a hacker automation log. is what I was told on how to find you?”

You just pissed off the wrong people…

Wow, harsh! Hey guys (and gals), I’m only trying to help!

To be fair, I did receive a number of thoughtful inquiries as well. So the world isn’t all bad. :) One person even wanted to save my soul!

“They say y’all are hackers, and I don’t care what you are doing Eddie even if you are stealing information. I am worried about your eternal soul. did you know that you are on your way to hell unless you have asked Jesus Christ to save you? Eddie you should stop whatever you are doing right now and get on your knees and ask and beg the LORD Jesus to forgive you through His Blood. I am going to report you to Facebook and block you from my profile, but you can still contact God. I am truly concerned for you and where you will spend eternity. Please ask him to forgive you!”

How To Reveal Stored Passwords in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE

eddie — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:56:02 +0000

Nowadays browsers store passwords then auto-populate forms, hiding that stored password behind little dots or asterisks. Guess what? There is a way to reveal the password hidden behind there. This is very handy for when you forget your password but have it stored in the browser.

Reveal Stored Passwords in Mozilla Firefox and Chrome

Navigate to the page where the passwords are stored. Paste this code into the location bar and hit enter. The passwords will be revealed.
javascript: var p=r(); function r(){var g=0;var x=false;var x=z(document.forms);g=g+1;var w=window.frames;for(var k=0;k

Note that the flip-side of this trick is that you probably shouldn’t be storing your password for sensitive websites – anyone with access to your computer could use this trick to reveal your password, write it down, then check your email/bank/cheating-on-your-spouse account from anywhere.

How to remove yourself as a “Fan” on your Facebook profile

eddie — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:25:44 +0000

I’m posting this tip because it took me forever to figure out how to remove myself from being a “Fan” of something or other on Facebook.

Seems that it is really easy to become a fan of something, but when you decide that you no longer want to be a fan, it’s not easy to find out how to become an “un-fan,” or an “ex-fan.”

This is because the link is hidden away at the bottom of the page that you have previously fanned. That is, the link to “remove me” is not grouped with the other links on the page. Instead, it is hidden away at the bottom of the page that you previously became a fan of.

I couldn’t find out how to do it on Facebook, even after looking for over 10 minutes. Fortunately, I found this page from Yahoo Answers where someone reveals the technique.

The solution: Go to the page that you are a fan of then go to the bottom and press ‘Remove me from fans’ and that should do it! Good Luck!

Easy once you know how to do it, eh?

Update
Step by step instructions, courtesy of Warren:

Thanks. If you still cannot find it, the following are the five steps:
1. Click ‘Profile’
2. Click ‘Info’
3. Click the page you want to remove yourself from
4. Go to the bottom of the left hand side column
5. Click ‘Remove Me from Fans’

Who is the largest Domain Name Registrar?

eddie — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:42:07 +0000

In a word (or two): Go Daddy. By Far.

According to webhosting.info, Go Daddy is blowing the competition out of the water. As of March 2008, 23.4% of all domain name registrations are done through Go Daddy, with another 3% through Go Daddy owned Wild West Domains.

Web hosting.info has this handy little chart:

(current as of March 2008)

Pretty impressive for a company that, just a few years ago, nearly went bankrupt as founder Bob Parsons bet his personal fortune on the company’s success.

I personally own about 200 domain names, and all are registered through Go Daddy. Here’s a tip for anyone looking to register a name: Use coupon code AMAZON2 to save a few bucks on registration. And if you’re looking for quality web hosting, drop me a line.

Eddie On Everything » internet

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