Bus error: Jake Billo’s weblog

I’ve been trying to sell my MacBook on Craigslist and Kijiji and had an inquiry. After searching for the obviously Nigerian-style phrases in the second message, I sure wasn’t going to wait around to find out how you can get scammed by PayPal.

(Messages posted in reverse order for your reading pleasure. I’m posting this to hopefully keyword Google with this alias.)

> From: Katty weatherly <katty.weatherly01@gmail.com>
> To: sale-742868246@craigslist.org
> Sent: Sunday, July 6, 2008 12:54:06 PM
> Subject: DO YOU STILL HAVE IT AVAILABLE F:S 13.3″ MacBook - white, 2GHz, 2GB
> RAM, 80GB - $1000 (Waterloo - near UW/Laurier)
>
> ** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY — AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
> ** Avoid:  wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
> ** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
> ** More Info:  http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html
>
> DO YOU STILL HAVE IT AVAILABLE F:S
>
>
> ——————————————————————
> this message was remailed to you via: sale-742868246@craigslist.org
> ——————————————————————

—

On 7/7/08, Jake Billo wrote:
> Yes, the MacBook is still available for sale.
>
> Thanks,
> Jake

—

From: Katty Weatherly
To: Jake Billo
Sent: Monday, July 7, 2008 4:43:07 AM
Subject: Re: DO YOU STILL HAVE IT AVAILABLE F:S 13.3″ MacBook - white, 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 80GB - $1000 (Waterloo - near UW/Laurier)

Thanks for the reply, the price is okay by me I will add $100.00 USD
for the shipping cost….making $1100.and i am ready to purchase from
you immediately which am buying this item to someone else,the payment
will be made via paypal cos is very secure and fast way to receive
money online and i don’t want you to look for any other buyer.i would
have love to come down for the pickup.But am not chanced to do that
now but am satisfy with your description of the item .I will like to
read from you concerning this moving arrangement before processing
and sending the payment out to you. i will like you to give me your
paypal account email id or send me an invoice for me to send your
payment.i will expect your mail.asap
Thanks in advance.
Hope to hear from you………………
Katty…………

—

Quit trying to scam people.

http://www.computerforum.com/124259-paypal-scam.html

I suppose you’re located in Italy for a conference as well?

http://www.netlinkaccess.com/Cost-Accounting/25790.htm

Die in a fire.

Regards,
Jake

Gmail’s FAQ doesn’t even give a way to try and get the account pulled, only to report phishing through my own Gmail account. The full message headers are useless and only claim that the original message was sent through HTTP. I’ve reported the account using this page, which I found in the support forums.

It’s been slightly over a week since I moved into the new place and things are working out well so far. One of the major changes is that I haven’t had as much time to sit down and develop: instead, the roommates and myself tend to be more social in the community area. Unfortunately for the screaming fans of XenonMKV, though, this means I haven’t had a chance to deliver on some bug fixes and requested features. I hope to have something new by the end of the month on that end.

On the technology front, I haven’t had as much luck getting 1:1 pixel mapping on a KDS-55A2020 television as the KF42E200A, but it’s still quite usable for movies without any overscan. I’m using the default nVidia drivers on Windows Vista, and using the “Adjust HDTV desktop size” controls in the nVidia Control Panel applet. There were some promising threads on AVSforum but they all seemed to deal with Windows XP and Powerstrip, both of which are needed to create and display custom resolutions.

I’ll likely have a new Judge Jake episode out within the next week or so, as well.

From the “Let’s Share Our Awesome Wallpapers” thread at Something Awful: Mandolux has some neat nature-themed and macro photography desktops, especially useful if you’re rocking two monitors. (All hail the BenQ FP241W!) I enjoy a nice mint leaf with my desktop icons.

Normally I’m not into YouTube video whoring, but the United States of Pop video (which remixes the Billboard top hits of 2007) is alternately impressive, but really demonstrates that all the top songs of 2007 sounded the same, and that “Umbrella” is a track that can accompany any lyrics.