11 posts tagged “jack yan & associates”

According to Mashable, people must upgrade their Wordpress installations as an attack is under way. I believe we only have a couple of sites that would be potentially at risk: Lucire has already been sorted, but the Your Wellington blog is still processing in the background as I type.
   People say how easy this automatic upgrading is, but I have found it very difficult. I have done several of these upgrades now, and this is all I see:

Wordpress upgrading

Since Triangle TV closed in Wellington, I have not been able to watch al-Jazeera as often as I used to. As I was asked to be on the July 31 edition of Listening Post, commenting on Kim Jong-Il and the media, I thought it would be worth sharing with more of you, especially if you are equally hampered by access to the news network. (Apologies to my Vox neighbourhood who will see two entries to the same video.) I think this marks my fifth or sixth appearance—I seem to have lost count.

Like Facebook and Twitter, our company has been under DOS attacks for the last few weeks and, as I write, we are under one right now. As for the “Joe job” that the Russians are suspected of having done to a Georgian blogger, I’ve had them, too—just that last year, I had no idea that this was a targeted campaign aimed directly at me or our company. I always thought it was random: like I am important enough to have a coordinated email attack against me. Yeah, right.
   It makes me wonder about the motive. The latest attacks come from the US east coast, which is interesting. The Joe jobs last year emanated from servers in Russia, Poland, Greece, and the US, but the coordinator could have been anywhere.
   You don’t get to 22 years in business without pissing somebody off. The Twitter attack last week was, according to some of the media, from the Russian government, and I can’t think of anyone at that high enough a level to even give a darn about what I do.
   As you know, there are some nut bars out there who have accused me of quite a few far-fetched things (remember the posts about my being racist, against homosexuals, etc.) just because they are too stupid to read what is on the page and imagine I had written something against their point of view. Well, folks, your imaginations might be active, but they diverge too much from reality.
   And if their grasp of reality isn’t that great, then I somehow think they wouldn’t be clever enough to mount an attack.
   So, who would be that keen to waste time on me and has the brains to pull this off? Tongue firmly in cheek, here are the top 10, in no particular order.
   1. Red China. They may be after anyone who has descended from family members who escaped in 1949. Each time I dis Chinese companies about bad behaviour, I will get a negative blog comment, or even a series of them. Seems pretty well coordinated—considering I don’t attract that many blog comments. Never mind that I say nice things about other Chinese companies who don’t do stupid things.
   2. Technocrats and anyone else who wants to get their hands on New Zealand’s remaining state assets. But I am not alone on opposing them and there are more worthy targets.
   3. Sen. John Kerry. It’s to get back at me for my decision to stop buying Wattie’s products because of the company’s overseas ownership. And the occasional quip about how the Forbeses made money in the opium trade. The latest attack did come from Massachusetts. Hmm.
   4. Elle magazine. Its parent company had French defence contracts that were a little incompatible with the fashion image. (It still holds a percentage of EADS.) Folks, I find this funny—and it always gets a laugh in speeches.
   5. Labour leader Phil Goff. I think his latest brochure photo sucks. And it’s probably not cool of him to brag about a free-trade deal with Red China to a roomful of expatriates who left because of 1949. Related to (1).
   6. The ACT Party. Related to (2). Known for sending me spam in 2001 and on numerous occasions afterwards—so they’re definitely a tech-savvy bunch there.
   7. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I’m not the one who talked about being under sniper fire in Bosnia. But I blogged about this a lot last year.
   8. Toyota. So I bring up the war every now and then. However, I eat a lot of Japanese food.
   9. Angelina Jolie. I am living proof that not all heterosexual men find her attractive, keeping her from a perfect hotness score.
   10. Facebook. What I write about what is happening internally must cut pretty closely to the truth.

I have to give props to the developers of the Mimbo skin for Wordpress—it’s a very good one that takes into account the needs of bloggers. Below is one of the sites we’ve been building—it’s not ready for prime-time yet, as it doesn’t have enough entries or contributors at this point. Mimbo needed little customization and we were able to make it look more distinctive than the out-of-the-box version.
   Prior to that, we were trying a German skin called Overstand, which was quite good in appearance, but not as easy to use. That might have been down to the language barrier. Mimbo seems to use the Wordpress features better and from what I could tell of the coding, is more logically structured.

Your Wellington screen shot

Continuing the silly email season, I mentioned this one today at the Vista Group luncheon (with original paragraphing), offering to buy the jya.net domain. Until the one accusing me of discriminating against gays (!), this was going to be the funniest one of the last week of February. I’ll still blog it since I told Jim and Mark I would:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am an independent contractor working on behalf of a variety of companies, and individuals across the world.
I work in a variety of online industries including (albeit not limited to) web design, development, and hosting.

I have been tasked with contacting, and negotiating on behalf of an individual in relation to the domain name jya.net.
A quick ‘Whois’ look up provided this address as a contact for the domains ownership, hence why you have received this.

In this particular case, the individual on whose behalf I am working is developing a network of information based websites.
The intention is that development will provide a variety of useful information that many many Internet users are looking for on a daily basis.
It is hoped that good rankings in search engines, and natural interest in the subject matter will allow such a network to be successful, and profitable.
A vital aspect of such a development is the domain names around which the various websites are branded. A website about cats is clearly more suited to the ‘cat.com’ domain than ‘stevethepussycat.com’. Numerous people looking for information on cats would type in cat.com, and thus a good domain is a sure fire way of reaching your target audience.

On the basis of the above, down to business.. We would be very interest in obtaining the domain name should it be obtainable for the offer price of 300(USD).

The whois database is not particularly informative, but I hasten to add that for any individual, or a company, such a cash injection during such a tough economic period is always helpful. Perhaps the sum of the above will make a sale a viable possibility for you.

I thank you for your time, and politely request a response in a timely manner.
Many Thanks

It is probably spam, and I opted not to reply. The sender included his name, more than I can say for the previous one blogged here.
   We get a lot of these but this is probably the second or third one with an offer price.
   I’m sure you can already see a few problems with this email, which is probably automated.
   For a start, how can there be a ‘natural interest in the subject matter’ of jya? What is a jya, anyway? I know why these three letters exist (Jack Yan & Associates) but why would anyone else be searching for them?
   Now, the price. The princely sum of $300, and how it could help us during tough times.
   Reprinting stationery for an international company: $4,000 for a minimum order. Changing addresses on the server for affected team members, probably not that cheap. Losing goodwill associated with the domain name: priceless.
   Getting $300 for the domain would be the worst deal ever.
   This is what suggested to me that it was spam. If the writer had even visited the site, he would have realized what was at stake.
   I was going to write back with some of the above, then I thought: I am not interested in commencing a dialogue with a spammer. Plus earlier requests, when I did write back, were never acknowledged.

Gotta love folks putting words into my mouth. A few of my team received this humorous email today—the funniest this week, because of its departure from reality—which I thought I would share in full, the headers omitted:

Have you read Jack Yan’s blog http://jackyan.vox.com?  When you have a moment, read his posts:  The gay marriage flap in California summarized; and I have read the judgement but my views aren’t changed in which Jack Yan writes in support of Proposition 8 which stripped same sex couples from the civil right to marry in California this past November.  On March 5th, 2009, the Supreme Court will begin to hear arguments in favor of overturning this hateful and bigoted measure.
   Do Lucire’s employees, associates, and advertisers approve it’s Publisher espousing such discriminatory commentary on a public blog in which Lucire and its partners are referenced.
   There are several commenters throughout Jack Yan’s blog who identify as “ex-gay”, a delusional belief that one can “pray away the gay” and “find freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ”.  Does Mr. Yan identify as “ex-gay” himself?  In any case, the Lucire connection to Mr. Yan’s discriminatory public blog postings may cause you, and the public, concern.

   Let’s see: did I state I am against gay marriage? No.
   Did I state that I support Proposition 8? No.
   What did I say? I reported on news I had read about another country’s laws. It was open for comments. From what I recall, I considered what others wrote, including the accusation that the original blog post referenced a biased source.
   The second post put simply, based on a legal analysis and taking the arguments into consideration, the majority opinion in support of gay marriage in California was weak, and hurts those campaigning for equal rights for homosexuals.
   I notice our writer, ashamed to identify him- or herself, discussing the Supreme Court hearing arguments on March 5. If the first judgement were strong, then there would be no need for this. As I predicted. The judgement, simply, would stand. This was precisely the danger I was pointing out.
   As to my commenters: I don’t care whether someone is gay, ex-gay, gay-to-be, or whatever. I have never enquired into their sexual histories. Nor do I care if they are Christian, atheist, or of any other belief system. In fact, among the addressees in the original email is a team member whose sexual orientation remains a mystery to me. Frankly, I do not know, I have never asked, and I never will ask.
   I remember many instances where a team member’s private details were never discussed when I dealt with them exclusively via email. Somewhere along the line they mentioned they were of a minority, gay or bi and would not have been able to get the same job and opportunities at another company where their race or sexual orientation was a problem. That record I am proud of.
   Now, how did my sexual orientation come into this again?
   If the writer wishes to identify the discrimination in my posts, (s)he is welcome to point out those statements in context and I am happy to debate or clarify them. I doubt this will happen: I notice that (s)he has made up his or her mind about what I said, even though the record shows something different.
   That record also shows I ran for Parliament for a leftist political party with a Queer Network—hardly the actions of a man who opposes gay rights.
   It may also seem strange to him or her that I support my team having personal blogs where they can outline their beliefs. Why? Because I do not discriminate.
   There’s that little thing I believe in called free speech.
   And my support for possessing personal views is reciprocated by my team—one comprised of people who have no label for their race, sexual orientation or religion in my companies.
   My crew, partly because of the business’s profile, and partly because of the team members’ hard work that attracts envy from some, is pretty used to seeing nutty emails anyway. An email that tries to paint me as controversial? Yeah, been there, done that.
   I actually think our mass emailer is trying to make the gay community look bad. If I were in that community, I would be ashamed to have someone slanting another’s words untruthfully for my cause. And (s)he cares a lot about a person’s religion or sexual orientation—too much for someone who supposedly wishes to see equality.
   It’s wonderful occasions like this where I can publicly restate the equal opportunities enjoyed at my companies, and of the democratic policies of the Alliance Party. Thank you very much to our unsigned writer for making me feel important.

Normally I can work out what’s being said but since I don’t know the first thing about Devangari, anyone like to enlighten me?

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PROTON_news_db_Indore_27_12_08

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I’ve always wanted our corporate home page to reflect the fact that we made it to 21 years in business since the beginning of the year—finally, here are the before and after.

JY&A home page—old design

JY&A home page—2008 design

2 comments

Show us your favourite font.
Submitted by [this is connie].

You mean favourite typeface. There is a difference (font implies type style and point size).
   Believe it or not, it’s not one from my own company’s range. I have always liked Helvetica and the Swiss school of design, and decided to improve on the design for Lucire. The typeface is called, predictably, Lucire. A 2006 advertisement follows (it’s the headline typeface).

The above was a re-type again. Why is Vox shutting down when I click ‘Save’?