Dan's Space

So I get an email yesterday morning that my webhost at www.xae.ca had exceeded it’s bandwidth limit. This has never happened before. So I brought up webalizer and saw that my charts had gone through the roof.

Couldn’t figure out why. I then saw that the referrer’s list showed that I was getting alot of Traffic from http://www.costcophotocenter.com/gifts/default.aspx.

Some more looking showed addresses like

• http://costcous.pnistaging.com/gifts/
• http://localhost:4703/gifts/ 
• http://localhost:4703/gifts/default.aspx
• http://preview3.pnimedia.com/gifts/

So I made an account on the costco photocenter website, since nothing was visible on their login page’s source that referenced my site. Viewed the source, and stumbled upon the following javascript.

    function pageLoad()
    {
        setInterval("levelDivHeight();",500);  
        var mainBannerImage = new Image;
        mainBannerImage.onload = function () { prefetchGiftBanners(); }; //load prefetch only after giftbanner is loaded.
        mainBannerImage.src = $get('master_masterContent_giftMainBanner').href;
    }
    
    function prefetchGiftBanners() 
    {
        var giftBannerURLArray = ['http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg','http://xae.ca/car.jpg'];       
        _imagePrefetcher.prefetchImages(giftBannerURLArray);        
        _imagePrefetcher.clearAfterComplete(2000);
    }

Essentially they would try to ‘pre-load’ a photo I took of my car (referenced further down the blog) without my name/car info watermarked that was roughly 1.5Mb in size.

Checked the logs and found other people hotlinking my images, so I put a .htaccess file in place. It may be harsh, but I’m hoping that whoever the genius was that decided to hotlink my images, decides to show their boss their work (or launch the site live) on Monday Morning and comes to find a rather rude awakening.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://xae.ca/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.xae.ca/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !facebook\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !google\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !dal\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !msn\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !tribalwars\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.feedburner.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://feeds.feedburner.com/xae.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !search\?q=cache [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png|txt|net)$ http://goatse.cz/hello.jpg [NC,R]

That last line means that they’ll be shown the goatse.cz image instead of my graphic.

Long story short, Don’t hotlink my images.

--Dan

I figured its about time to post a real pic of my car. It just got back from Dexter's and is all clean + shiny, and the summer tires are on it now =D

It's a silver 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX Sedan.

You can view the pics in full-size, at

http://xae.ca/car.jpg (cropped/cleaned up pic)

http://xae.ca/dans_car_orig.jpg (orig pic, minus some #'s)

Yes, I did not mispell that.

This morning, I awoke to find my mother very teary eyed, hovering over me. I was in a very dazed and confused state as I'd only fallen asleep 5 hours earlier. It didn't sink in right away, but what came next really sucked.

But first, some back story.

Yesterday (Saturday) my dad received a call when my mom was out shopping with our company, reg and louise. It was from my grandfather (my mother's father, Horst Fluit) and he had just checked into the hospital with chest pains. The doctor said it was not a heart attack, but to be on the safe side he decided to increase his blood-thinning drugs. When my mother got home from shopping, she immediately gave him a call to see if everything is alright. He told her he'd be fine, and that he Loved her.

Now, back to this morning.

Early (6ish am) this morning he had a Stroke. One of the side-effects of the blood thinning drugs = increased risk of stroke. The entire left-side of his body was paralyzed from head, to toe. The doctor did not expect him to live to see the end of the day. Betty, his wife, signed a do-not-reucessitate form meaning the doctor's could only keep him comfortable in his last hours.

Church today was cancelled, on account of the freak 27cm of snow that fell last night (very beautiful).

The day went on, kinda saddened. I slept through the entire afternoon until dinner time came, and had to quickly find desert as that was my task. (ended up getting a DQ Oreo Blizzard cake). Dinner was lovely, and it was good to spend easter with friends and family (us 5 + ray/nicole/al/jus/reg/louise). We all sat down to pray, and then my dad said a prayer for Opa (german for grandpa, what we called him) and this was the first i'd found out that he was actually dead. Aparantly they received a call when i was passed out during the afternoon, and no one told me he was now dead.  

My uncle flew out today (Sunday) at 2pm his time, and my mom flys out early tuesday morning. Family from germany should be arriving sometime this week, and the funeral will be held after they arrive.

He was a man of God, and is now in His hands :)

Anyways. I should goto sleep, or well, try to again. :/

Laters ~

After browsing planet.cs.dal.ca I just had to do this test to see how I scored. Unfortunately, I was crowned "by far the SUPREME NERD GOD"!

Haha. My nerd score is 100%!!!

Work? meh. its work. stressful. Anyone have a recipe for stress relief? Anyways, being the 5th of february and all, i'd decided i was going to go down to the split crow and pickup the worlds largest pubcrawl t-shirts / bracelets for Mike, Mandy, Jerry, Tommy, and Sam. Get down there and find theres nowhere to park. So, I parked (illegally) next to this car with a ticket on it, and hoped i'd not get one myself.

Get inside the crow to find a lineup of some extremely beautiful looking girls. Ask the bartender where I pickup the t-shirts, and he tells me its behind all these girls. *thinks* wow. they're all going on this? (Tommy, you're in!) So. In lineup, many hot girls. All of a sudden, theres a cameraman + a dude with a mic talking to the chick in front of me about her expectations of the crawl, next thing I know (kinda in a dazed state) dude with the mic, is talking to me!

Do you think we'll be able to keep the pub-crawl organized?
probably not, with that many people it can't be easy!

So, what do you expect for this pub crawl?
It's gonna be awesome!

The best night of your life?
Damn straight! (yeah that's right. I went there.)

Anyways, continued on to get bracelets and showed the guy my tickets. He's like uhh here ya go (too lazy to rip them). I then go talk to the girls who were handing out shirts, and she gave me back 6 of them after digging around in some boxes. At this point, i'm kind of confused... what do i do now? am I done here? Leave w/ bracelets + tickets in hand (un-ripped tickets at that). Nothing was recorded to prove i'd gotten them, or my bracelet?

Anyways... if anyone else sees the flaws in their protocol, and perhaps needs some more shirts/bracelets...  (yes, im a trouble maker :$ i only say what i see)

Laters.

So, it has recently been brought to my attention through the countless hours of facebook wandering, that Thursday February 15th, 2007 will be known henceforth as "That's What She Said" Day. 

This February 15th be sure to dedicate yourself to pointing out all the innuendo you possibly can. If your friends don't know what you're doing be sure to make it clear within the first 20 minutes of converstation that "that's what she said." Get creative, even leave yourself open for other people who may think that that's what she said. Here is a list of times and places where it would be most appropriate to spring your best "that's what she said" cracks:
-The Workplace, to customers and clients whenever possible. For example:
Customer: "Is this the only color it comes in?"
Salesman: "That's what she said."

Anyways, you get the idea :D

Just thought i'd share this with all ya'll =D

Laters

In other news, me, jerry, tommy, and craig have been looking into going sky diving. Aparantly it 490$ for the initial lessons + jumps w/ instructor. After that, its 50$ / jump. Who knows, maybe the parachute wont open? lol

So, during this past week i've (in no particular order)...

• Gone Snowboarding, twice
  • Mark's mom broke her leg?
  • I twisted my ankle getting off the lift trying to avoid a kid
  • Decided I like night-riding alot more. Speaking of which, that movie comes out soon <3
• Gone Rock Climbing (w/ harness) and Bouldering (rock climbing w/out a harness)
  • wanna start going more often =D It was alot of fun, and builds some massive upperbody strength
  • was impressed with myself, I made it upstairs! (harder area where kids arent allowed :)
  • ow, my crotch, hands, and forearms all hurt (still)
    • yes, i realize that sounds bad if taken out of context
• Saw Epic Movie
  • I enjoyed it, although some people were expecting too much. Personally, I'm beginning to think the "spoof on all the other hit movies" genre is beginning to get kinda boring.
• Played the Simpsons Game for the Gamecube :D
  • mu hwa hwa hwa
• Gotten to drive in a new Focus
  • learned that Jen is a force to be wreckoned with on the road
• Played alot of WoW
  • made alot of Gold :D for a lvl 18, i've got ~50+ gold (half way to a mount)
• Gone to dooleys
  • Much fun
  • envious of Jerry who's filled his card and is working on a second one! >.<
    • I've still got 10 more signatures to go till 30
• Schooled a bunch of Tommy's Friends on the Wii, and at Pool on a Snooker Table
  • I am the tennis master!
• Watched the Super Bowl
  • Supported the Halifax XPlosion Ladies Tackle Football Team
  • At the same time, celebrated Tommy's 20th Birthday!
  • Our office bet, we all lost, who woulda guessed. a 1/10 chance, and "pitchers at the niche" win
• Tried a Jaggerbomb or three
  • Drop a shot glass of Jagermeister into a cup half full of Red-Bull
  • Tasted pretty good!
• Created a new layout/template for my soccer Team's website (www.sacktownac.com)
  • Speaking of which, big pub crawl. Info is on that page =D
  • I'm happy. The schedule is generated automagically from a google calendar
  • If you click on any image, it hsa a Light-Box effect :D
• Found many old friends on facebook
• Introduced my Mother, Sister, and Justine to the wonderment that is Your Father's Moustache' Wings.
  • they also ordered 12 pieces of garlic bread! ugh.
  • the majority of their wings were pawned off on me since they couldnt eat them all! I think I set a new personal record.
• Gotten [PRO] in Wii Boxing and almost [PRO] in Wii Bowling
• Introduced to Full Metal Alchemist, and reunited with Bleach

and yet, I still find myself bored at times? gah.

Whats new? uhm... lots. do i wanna talk about it right now? not rlly as am kinda busy. But, feel free to ask me ;p

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee! So saturday was a pretty fun day. It began with the destruction of my bedroom (got to rip out/dismantle two walls and found the workmanship of our house to be pretty crappy. Will be fixing it up though!) Upgraded XBMC (Xbox Media Center) on my xbox to the latest release and discovered a new feature, "XBMC-Scripts". It's an interface to a website that is full of xbox media center scripts (like youtube, google video, and various other rss-readers). Found this one script that streamed video from DL.TV (an online tv show for geeks, by geeks) and their latest few episodes covered the CES 2007. Being a geek at heart, I was quickly encapsulated and lost track of time. Took a break to go shower, but when I came back the show was still going, and had some time left. By this time, it was about uhm 9:20 so i'd figured i'd give Sam a call and tell her im coming to pick her up. (I'd told her around 9pm earlier that day =x my bad).

I'd noticed my two trial size things of "Clear Care" contact solution were running out, so we quickly made a pitstop on the way home at SuperStore. I'd intended to pickup a gatorade, but instead got distracted by "Beaver Buzz" which Sam pointed out. It's an energy drink that's made in Canada and marketed towards Canadians (note the hockey stick the beaver's holding!) I muchly enjoyed the Saskatoon Berry (mixed berries) flavour, but the Canadian Citrus kind of had a grapefruit taste (kinda bitter). Both flavours were still better than Red Bull hands down though!

Regardless of taste, I downed both of them and was ready for soccer. Super full of energy too. I couldnt stop running around. At one point in the second half (after we'd scored) they were playing monkey in the middle with the soccer ball and me chasing them. I stopped after about 2 minutes of straight running my balls off in circles and having no one come help ;p eventually they tried to pass it up and we intercepted. woots. We won that game 2-1 and it's a well deserved victory too against Cole Harbour (they're only 3 points ahead of us right now in the standings in first place). We're making our way back up the ladder! During the game I was coming after the ball and was in the middle of throwing a turning kick to hit the ball but the goalie had gotten in the way. I think I stopped maybe 2" away from his Gut and would have definately crippled him had i'd followed through. He told me thanks for stopping the kick ;p Listening to the girls cheer was funny too "Go Dan Go Dan Go!... uhh Nice Stop" (loudly chanted)

After soccer, we took the long way round to Boston Pizza since I forgot to make a turn earlier on, but we were still the first ones there. Initially we went because Tim wanted to watch the end of the game, but he never showed up. After some difficulties and arguements about the heater/air conditioner that was on a 5 minute on, 5 minute off, cycle, we ended up moving to some taller tables. So much food <3 Thai chicken bites, 3 cheese toast, Rickards Red, and more. It was amazing. Of course, all this food produced a fair amount of dishes. I eat rather fast, and so was the first one done... and having had all the energy drinks earlier, was still very very hyper and not calming down any time soon. Kinda like a bunny councing around. Weeeeeeee. So, I did what any fidgety person would do! I built a tower! of Dishes! It's pictured above, so not going to go into much detail but know that there is a Cup inside of the Pitcher with a martini glass inside of that and a thing of dip balanced up top. wow. upon second glance, all those dishes are balanced on top of one martini glass. The waiter guy (who was freaking awesome) kept on trying to steal the dishes away from me. I'd scold him and he'd go away. After the tower became high enough to catch his attention from across the room, he quickly grabbed his cell phone and snapped photos of me and the tower. I think we made his night that night haha being the only customers in the bar. He even let us take free cookies "you all look like your under 12" because he'd seen pat sniffing around somewhere off to the side (where cookies were kept).

:D

Sunday was the Day of Zim. Watched the last 2 discs (Volume 3) of Zim and i t was most excellent. Swiss Chalet was very yummy, and Idiocracy was pretty good too :D The entire movie in a nutshell, is that the world is going to become overrun with hillbillies, cheerleaders, and other morons who reproduce in very large numbers with no natural enemies to thin the herd, so to speak. Definately worth a watch if you have time :) Anyways, I should get back to work.

Yay snow!

Laters.