Return from the 3rd level of malware hell

There are days, that the interwebs suck dynamically placed, interactive Donkey Balls. Yesterday, was one of those days.

Come to find out at some point on Friday, Flogging English was, for lack of a better word, hacked. Two JavaScript files had some malicious code embedded in them that tried to do something well…. malicious. What? Dunno man, I just deleted that shit.

Google alerted me late in the day on Friday, meaning I didn’t see it until I checked my email a mere 30 minuted before my scheduled 50 mile ride. I fumbled about a bit, did several full searches of my blog database and found nothing. Then I started scanning the code of the pages that Google was reporting as infected. Still nothing. I made a few changes, thinking maybe it was in error – and requested a review, then went for my ride.

Well, it wasn’t an error, and Google showed me a couple more pages, one of which led me directly to my swfobject files that had been injected with the poopy code. So off I went to download the latest version of swfobject, and to rewrite all of my static Flash pages to use the new code file. Whew. With that done, I went back in a started looking at my admin setting for the blog. I had been allowing everyone who wanted to register to do so, and come to find out, I’m guessing through a hole in WordPress, someone was able to make themselves an admin. Well, not for long, and now I’ve locked it down, and only a handful of users remain. If you were one of the folks I deleted, my apologies, please let me know and I would be more than happy to sign you up again, although you do not need to be a registered user to sign up for updates if that’s all you really want.

The final mistake I made was allowing the blog directory to be written to. This is a total n00b mistake, and I’m not sure when I did this or why – so in some respects I deserve what I got, and I’m lucky it was pretty simple to fix.

All in all, I’m pretty lucky it was as easy as it was to get fixed, authenticated by Google, and the malicious code warning removed. This system seems to work pretty well, and pretty quickly since all of this went down on Friday, and not weeks before. On the plus side, now I have new clean files, a more organized directory structure, updated code files for all of my javascript frameworks, and a better understanding of how to fix these things when they happen.

REWORK : Essential reading for… everyone.

Rework is one of those books; you know the ones. The kind of book that opens your mind to ideas. Changes your attitude, and brings you a clarity of thought that you have not had in a while. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (you know, the guys who started 37signals?) knocked this one out of the park and right into the cheap seats. If you run your own business, are thinking of starting one, trying to find the motivation to start a side project or even just slugging along in your daily life as a corporate drone – read this book.

I flew through the 279 pages in just about 2 days; I simply didn’t want to put it down. Jason and David have an amazingly readable, and accessible style which they infused into Rework making it informative, entertaining and enlightening. It’s an excellent balance of “what you’re doing is wrong”, and “here’s how to try and get on the right path.” Many books, too many in fact, end up being a manifesto of wrong, and offer little in the way of fresh ideas to try and right the ship. It’s easy to walk the halls of the great corporate sloth and point out the failures, flaws and ridiculous idiosyncrasies of doing business the slow, methodical and often times backwards way that the corporate machine operates.

Rework is listed as a business and economics book, and that’s where you’ll find it at just about any book store, but that seems to be too much of a pigeon hole for the ideas filling the pages. Just about everyone can benefit from the reading this book and reworking aspects of daily life. It’s easy to get bogged down with all of the things you have to do, and still find time to do the things you want to do. It doesn’t matter if you are into photography, painting, writing, lamp working or building custom bicycle frames, a fresh approach to any project, hobby or passion can yield unexpected and desired results.

The bottom line is; read this book.

Online tools for web design & dev that you might actually use

Everyone has their favorite tools and services, and there is no shortage of lists telling you what you could or should be using, but this is my list. Some of these I have been using for a long time others are new additions, but provide value to my online development process.

Basecamp

Basecamp is one of the best project management applications available, it’s easy to figure out and even easier to use. Basecamp excels at being pm for everyone, and I’m quite certian you’ve heard of it or maybe even use it – so I’m keeping it brief. Just use it – mmmmkkaaayyy?

Concept Feedback

Concept Feedback is a great site for getting feedback (obviously) on a new design without having to jump through a bunch of hoops to do it. With a simple registration and profile setup process, you could be off and running in 5 minutes flat. There’s a lot of content out there on their site, with a pretty strong community. Just remember it’s a two-way street, you gotta give a little to get a little.

Bounce

Bounce provides an online platform for users to grab a screenshot of any URL, and then start a discussion about the site in question. You can share (here’s the one I started for this post) the feedback with the entire interwebs or sign up and create a private discussion, which can be helpful for those super-secretive corporate types. And they even give you a bouncing ball to watch while you wait for your screenshot to appear. The only down-side I have run into is if it’s a Flash site your trying to grab, it doesn’t wait very long for all of the content to load, so you might just get a loading screen or half rendered, but i guess that’s just another reason to hate Flash. You hear that haters? I just gave you another one……

Silverback

Silverback is usability testing software for your Mac, (sorry Windows guys, okay not really) which allows for quick turn-around testing and a solid feature set. It’s easy to use, simple to set up, and very affordable. You basically just download the app and you’re ready to go.

Launchlist

Launchlist is one of those apps that you wish you had thought off first. We all have our own pre-launch checklists, or in some cases two or three of them. Launchlist is the best site checklist I have seen, and the fact that it’s on the web and makes for easy sharing makes it a no-brainer. In fact, it’s everything that a checklist should be; simple to use, quick to edit, easy to share. It shouldn’t take you hours to monkey with your checklists, there’s more important things at hand – and Launchlist helps you get back to the important stuff.

MailChimp Inbox Inspector

MailChimp is one of those tools that you should be using already, and their Inbox Inspector is darn near indispensable when it comes to making sure your well crafted SPAM, errr…. I mean email campaign is getting delivered and not ending up in the trash bin. If you only want the inspection, for $14 you get 3 inspections, and they look at all the major email and webmail clients, plus tell you if you’re going to caught in the SPAM filters, and then they tell you why. It truly is; easy for n00bs, strong for Ninjas.

HTML5 for Web Designers – A Book Apart

A couple of weeks ago I dropped some coin to get my copy of HTML5 for Web Designers by Jeremy Keith, and it arrived at my door on Friday.

The first book in the “A Book Apart” series from the folks over at A List Apart is an excellent introduction to HTML5 and covers more than just enough to get you into trouble. For their Freshman book effort, HTML5 for Web Designers is accessible and easy on the cranial lobes for even the most inexperienced designers.

Jeremy touched on the design of HTML5, and all of the big touch points that are getting lots of air-time, but made a point to get into web forms, microformats, and semantics. For more information on the book right from Jeremy Keith, check out his appearance on The Big Web Show in May before the book was released last month. This is a great book for, well, designers who are just about ready to jump into the ocean of HTML5 and need an easy way to get more information.

It’s a quick read, and well worth the $18 bucks. I would recommend this book to just about anyone who needs an quick and easy primer to HTML5. And for those who have been losing sleep over it; it’s HTML5 – no space.

Mercedes, Hyundai and Malaysia Airlines are now sportin’ iPads

With the instant popularity of the iPad, and the fact that there are over 2 million of them out there in the wild, it’s no surprise that companies are jumping on these devices and putting them to work to get people excited about and purchase their products or services. Hyundai is equipping their Equus with an iPad fully stocked with a custom app. The Equus Multimedia Tablet, as Hyundai is calling it, has vehicle information and automatic dealer contact information which they are hoping will entice customers to contact dealerships for services and maintenance more often. The Equus is positioned to compete with other high-end cars like Mercedes, BMW, Audi and other snooty rides. No word on the capabilities of the equipped device, but the only downside I could see is that it is likely only WiFi, which limits its usefulness if kept in the car.

Mercedes is taking an all-together different tact, and they are equipping their salesforce with iPads and custom applications this summer trying to make it easier, simpler, and quicker to get folks roaming around looking at the cars and converting them into folks driving cars off the lot. Armed with iPads loaded with Mercedes Benz Advantage, 40 dealers around the U.S. will prototype the idea and see if it floats. This isn’t their first time tripping through the Tulips of the world of Apple apps. Back in October of last year, Mercedes dropped their financial app to the iPhone, which has been downloaded 130,000 times, and boasts some $3.6 million in payments, and 5,00 transactions according to Mercedes. If their last app is any indication, the sticking point here will be how well the salesforce can integrate the new device into their pitch, and how well they use it. If the guy trying to sell you on this new $50,000 sled is fumbling about the iPad trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B, then I can totally see them blowing the deal. Mercedes is looking for their new device to get people into and out of the driver seat more quickly, by using the device for lease returns as well.

If you happen to be in Kuala Lumpur in the near future, be sure to plod on over to the MHkiosks for Malaysia Airlines and play with an iPad adopted version of their MHmobile app. As with MHmobile, you can check-in, book your flight, and check departure times from the kiosks. There’s some pics and video over at engadget, if you are so inclined.

Malaysia Airlines isn’t the only way you can get some iPad action while jet-setting, JetStar is piloting an iPad rental program starting last month that will get passengers the ability to get a device loaded up with movies, books, and games for as little as $10. The service is expected to be rolled out internationally later this year also gives you the add-on of WiFi at another $10. This is a pretty good deal if you ask me, $20 bucks for an iPad and WiFi? I can think of few ways I would rather spend my time trapped in a flying metal tube.