One of the news items making the rounds for the past few days is the 'exploit' of putting small url-based graphics or 'bugs' in Word documents, that allow the savvy user to trace where the document goes and who looks at it.

The idea is that whenever the document is viewed by a computer hooked to the net, Word will establish an http connection with the authors' machine (web site, whatever) and download the graphic on demand. Naturally this download is saved in the server log and the author can check the log to see who downloaded the graphic, and thus viewed the document, and from where.

Wired put up a story on this topic yesterday and called Microsoft for their take on the 'exploit.' Wired excerpt follows:

Microsoft was quick to point out that if this is an issue, it's one affecting any HTML-enabled application, not just Word.

"This is a decision that every Web user needs to make -- whether they're comfortable accepting cookies from a website," said Scott Culp, a Microsoft security-program manager. "That's why we provide the features in IE that say, 'Accept a cookie from this website, but not a cookie from that website.'"

Mike seems completely unaware that this issue has nothing at all to do with cookies. While a cookie can store extra information on a user's system, accepting or refusing a cookie won't stop the graphic from loading and consequently alerting the author of the viewing.

The question here is whether Microsoft Mike really doesn't know what a cookie is, and why it's immaterial, or if he sensed that he could get away with touting IE (and Word)'s ability to refuse cookies as a way of saying "See? That's all right then."

To my mind it doesn't lend much faith that Microsoft is going to deliver a solution when they apparently don't fully understand the problem...

Though I've (very, very literally) spent years waiting between installments of his serial story She Hates My Futon, every once in a while Craig posts a true gem of a journal entry, the kind of thing I can only aspire to write...

This is one of the reasons I started weblogging. The ordinary made extraordinary (or at least funny).

When Mr. Spock and Q team up to reinvent storytelling, I know the kid in me sits up and takes notice...

While I was studying for the GRE I subscribed to Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day. Today's word is thaumaturgy.

Funny... The internet was the killer app of the computer. The web (along with email) was the killer app of the internet. eBay is one of the top ten killer apps of the web, and paypal is the killer app of eBay.

So what will Paypal's killer app be? And what was the computer the killer app of? Technology? Science?

Got loads of stuff to talk about today, but it'll have to wait until after class. I'm off to my discussion section for CS 160: User Interface Design, Prototyping, & Evaluation. I'm not in the course, but I'm trying like mad to get in. As a senior who needs the course to graduate and considering that HCI was the reason I came back to school, I'm pretty screwed if I can't make it in... Plus, I have a project I'm jonsing to do in the class. A really cool augmentation of Blogger's feature set.

Anyhow, as I said, updates to follow. Weekend's almost here...

Today's horoscope for Cancer (by Sydney Omarr) reads:

Cancer: Focus on promotion, production, innovative ways for distribution. You have something of value. Let others know you are aware of it. Get your money's worth."

The funny thing is, that what they said yesterday...

Hmm. Maybe I should have pushed the requested AOLiza donation to a dollar...

Actually a lot of people have asked me why I didn't slap up some ad banners and rake in the cash. I dunno. I'm just so picky about my site that I don't want strange pictures and motives flying all over it. After all, mine are strange enough...

I've been doing a lot of research today on community-building on the net. I've spent a good deal of time onthe corporate side, where community-building is throwing up a message board on your site and hoping that people will form bonds, but now I'm looking at the most successful communities and seeing how they work.

I'll talk more about that later, when I talk about my project proposal for CS 160, which seeks to build a more cohesive community around one that already exists between members of the weblogging community.

But right now, I had to show you one community that defies description (and anything else they can defy).

I've found that with all the recent traffic to the site, I've been reluctant to write more in the blog because the biggest news is all the traffic coming to AOLiza, and for all you first-timers coming here, that sounds pretty self-referential (which is fine, this is a personal weblog, after all) and egotistical (which isn't as cool). So bear with me. I encourage people coming here for the first time to look around, and check back now and then to see what's new.

Anyhow, suffice to say I had to do a lot of work yesterday throwing up a few mirrors of the site to handle twin stories from ABCNews and CNN. I think Wired is going up today, and I've been getting a healthy flow of traffic from UserFriendly (thanks Rachel!!).

I love the different levels people think about AOLiza. At first it was all about humor at the expense of AOL folk (other people's take, not mine). Then the conversations turned toward the ethical implications, then the sociological implications (if people can't tell this is a bot, how will bot communications evolve in the future? Watch out AskJeeves!).

In a nutshell, a lot of very interesting questions have been raised and I'm looking forward to seeing where the discussion goes. I'll be putting up my thoughts here as time permits.

Alos, on the Cameo front: Due to the huge current tax on my bandwidth, I can't put up the cameo pictures for another few days, until the traffic dies down. Those who are interested in the project (and I hope it's everyone, no wait, then I'd still have the bandwidth problem, aw, hell!) should come back next week and take a look. If you don't thikn you'll remember, go ahead and go to the cameo home page now and enter your email address and I'll drp you a note when the content goes up!

Adobe released Photoshop 6 today. The product's home page looks really spiff. It's ironic that they use Macromedia Flash to supply their glitz...

Who says weblogs don't pay? I set up a donation request link on AOLiza and now I won't have to pay for grad school! (that is, if another quarter-million people follow suit)

Still, it's tons better than serving up 250 banner ads for the same net effect. Don't you agree?