Article published May 25, 2007
'Star Wars' still major force after 30 years
Ethan Sacks
New York Daily News
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It really was a long time ago.
Today, it'll be exactly 30 years since "Star Wars" blasted away all expectations after opening in just 32 movie theaters on May 25, 1977.
It's remarkable to note how, in the days before universe-filling marketing campaigns and studio tracking reports, no one, not even writer-director George Lucas, was prepared for the lines that snaked around theaters showing "Star Wars."
Audiences cheered from the opening blasts of John Williams' score to the closing credits, pausing only to boo Darth Vader.
Facing high demand for tie-in toys that had yet to be manufactured, department stores were forced to issue IOUs.
In the late 1970s in America, the movie "appealed to people at a time (when) things maybe weren't going great," says Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in six movies and several TV specials. "People wanted something to make them feel good.
"And boy, did it take them out of their environment!"
Or as Rick McCallum, producer of the recent prequel trilogy, says: "It was a single moment in time that's not likely to be repeated."
The movie that 20th Century Fox nearly abandoned in midproduction ended up earning $460 million at the box office in the United States alone, boosted by the release of a special edition in 1997.
The film is the second-highest-grossing movie of all time, behind "Titanic."
There is no competition, however, in the world of toys and other tie-ins. The "Star Wars" franchise has raked in $13.5 billion in merchandising alone since 1977, according to Lucasfilm.
"There's no question that was the film that made the entire movie industry rethink its attitude toward summer movies, toward juvenile movies for big kids, science fiction, special effects and, of course, merchandising," says film historian Leonard Maltin.
This weekend, people who want to praise the Force can celebrate several ways:
l Now in bookstores is J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Star Wars," a mammoth tome so packed with photos and facts, a wookiee could get a hernia trying to lift it.
The $75 book, surprisingly, is a first for "Star Wars."
But the author recently told the New Daily News that he stumbled across four boxes of transcripts in the Lucasfilm library archives from interviews that took place between 1975 and 1978, conducted by the film's original head of marketing.
The background they provided formed the basis of the book, which is chock-full of anecdotes, behind-the-scenes photos and early storyboard sketches (Darth Vader, it seems, once looked more like a vacuum cleaner).
* Think the creature cantina at Mos Eisley spaceport was filled with a motley bunch?
Watch "Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed," a new two-hour documentary airing Monday on the Discovery Channel, and see Newt Gingrich, Dan Rather and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi comment alongside "Lord of the Rings" filmmaker Peter Jackson. Far out.
* To coincide with the anniversary, the U.S. Postal Service is issuing 15 "Star Wars" stamps.
But Lucasfilm isn't stuck in the past: There are two TV series in the works, animated and live-action, with the latter reportedly filling in the blanks of what some characters were doing for the 20 years between Episodes III and IV.
McCallum says the plan is to get them on the air in 2009.
"'Star Wars' was revolutionary, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted this long," says Peter Mayhew, the 7-foot-3 English actor who played Chewbacca. "So I'll talk to you again in another 30 years."
Copyright © 2007
The News & Record
and Landmark Communications, Inc.
Star Wars: How The World Changed
Star Wars: How The World Changed
Posted By:Ted Kemp
Topics:Technology | Media | Movies & Film Studios
Sectors:Technology | Media
Companies:News Corporation
By Ted Kemp News Editor | 21 May 2007 | 12:42 PM ET
Font size:
“Star Wars,” the fantasy space epic that premiered 30 years ago this week, is often portrayed as the quintessential, even archetypal blockbuster—the flick that forever changed how the film industry writes, makes and markets movies. But things aren’t quite that simple.
The company that made the film, 20th Century Fox was a publicly traded—but still independent—studio on May 25, 1977, the day Star Wars debuted in 32 U.S. theaters. The company had never surpassed $37 million in annual earnings since its formation in 1935 through the merger of Darryl Zanuck’s Twentieth Century Pictures and William Fox’s Fox Film Corp.
In 1977, those profit numbers were about to change. Gary Arnold, a “Washington Post” staff writer who wrote an original review of the movie, told the story of two friends who “placed orders with their brokers (for 20th Century Fox stock) minutes after seeing the film.”
Box Office Gold
“Star Wars” raked in $6.8 million during its first weekend of wide release. Within months it would do something no movie—including “Jaws,” released the year before—had ever done: It surpassed the $300-million revenue mark. “Star Wars” topped out at $798 million in worldwide revenue. Earnings at 20th Century Fox more than doubled their best-ever mark in 1977, as did the company’s stock price.
Still, says Agatino Balio, a former professor of film at the University of Wisconsin who has written several books on movie industry history, not one of the underlying business strategies that created the “Star Wars” phenomenon was really all that novel.
“As a genre, and as a marketing strategy for a motion picture company, there wasn’t anything new about 'Star Wars' as a concept,” Balio says.
"Star Wars" would go on to be serialized, generating three decades of revenue through the release of sequels and prequels. But Balio points out that United Artists had pioneered the serial concept years before with the James Bond films. And “The Godfather” and “Jaws” had established themselves as “event” films with sweeping cultural impact while "Star Wars" was still an amorphous idea knocking around in George Lucas’ head. Star Wars can’t even claim the honor of being the first mega-blockbuster: After taking inflation into account, "Gone With The Wind" still ranks as the highest grossing movie of all time.
Nothing To Write Home About
As for depth of plot line , "Star Wars" certainly didn't open new territory. "The story of 'Star Wars' could be written on the head of a pin and still leave room for the Bible," said critic Vincent Canby of the New York Times.
All those things said, “Star Wars” did, indeed, break new ground. Even though it came along after "2001: A Space Odyssey," Lucas’ firm Industrial Light & Magic (which he founded only because 20th Century Fox had recently scrapped its special effects department) saw to it that “Star Wars” took effects—video, audio, robotic, miniature modeling and otherwise—to extremes previously unimagined.
Related Stories
* Jim Goldman: The Empire's Real Legacy
* Slideshow: Behind The Scenes At ILM
* StarWars.com
And for pure mythic originality, “Star Wars” represented something unprecedented: Arnold of the Post and Vincent Canby of “The New York Times” struggled to categorize the film, saying alternately in their first reviews that “Star Wars” evoked everything from Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, classic westerns, pirate melodramas and aerial combat films, to samurai epics, “Ivanhoe,” the Legend of King Arthur, and the Gospel According to St. Matthew.
Given that “Star Wars” was made for $11 million, its return on investment certainly surpassed anything before it and probably anything since. "Star Wars" accomplished that without the benefit of "saturation booking"—the relatively new industry practice of opening films in thousands of theaters on the same day. Not bad for a movie whose release 20th Century Fox execs moved to before Memorial Day because they were certain it wouldn’t be able to compete with that summer’s "Smokey and the Bandit."
Blockbuster Business Model
Today, a single film can cost $200 million to produce, and a hoped-for blockbuster may cost another $100 million to market, says Gordon Hodge, media analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners. In short, since the days of "Star Wars," the movie business has become a game of very big bets.
“When you think about the cost of just one film, you could even start a significant company with that kind of money,” Hodge says.
But consumer demand for the blockbuster remains. So, therefore, does studios’ incentive to turn out potential mega-hits. With the investment stakes higher than they've ever been before, motion picture companies have begun turning to financial devices that weren't available in 1977.
Today's movies have the benefit of revenue from DVD sales, which Hodge says often match box office sales. Because DVDs don’t require a huge marketing budget, they present less risk to the studios.
Movie companies have also begun mitigating risk by taking on banks and financial services firms as initial investment partners. Several banks and even hedge funds have developed formulas that factor actors, genres and other elements into account to gauge a film's chance of success. If they like the way the numbers come out, they get on board with the studio. Hodge cites Merrill Lynch's backing of Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" and "Hulk II," both slated for release in 2008.
Marvel Studios, which has borrowed more than one page from the "Star Wars" playbook, has proven itself a winner with its "SpiderMan" films. And it takes full advantage of the new, emerging—and unprecedented—financial tools at the disposal of today's film companies.
Taken in that context, "Star Wars" didn't so much herald the era of modern movie making, as it became the symbol—albeit a very successful one—of an age of filmmaking whose time has already passed by.
Posted By:Ted Kemp
Topics:Technology | Media | Movies & Film Studios
Sectors:Technology | Media
Companies:News Corporation
By Ted Kemp News Editor | 21 May 2007 | 12:42 PM ET
Font size:
“Star Wars,” the fantasy space epic that premiered 30 years ago this week, is often portrayed as the quintessential, even archetypal blockbuster—the flick that forever changed how the film industry writes, makes and markets movies. But things aren’t quite that simple.
The company that made the film, 20th Century Fox was a publicly traded—but still independent—studio on May 25, 1977, the day Star Wars debuted in 32 U.S. theaters. The company had never surpassed $37 million in annual earnings since its formation in 1935 through the merger of Darryl Zanuck’s Twentieth Century Pictures and William Fox’s Fox Film Corp.
In 1977, those profit numbers were about to change. Gary Arnold, a “Washington Post” staff writer who wrote an original review of the movie, told the story of two friends who “placed orders with their brokers (for 20th Century Fox stock) minutes after seeing the film.”
Box Office Gold
“Star Wars” raked in $6.8 million during its first weekend of wide release. Within months it would do something no movie—including “Jaws,” released the year before—had ever done: It surpassed the $300-million revenue mark. “Star Wars” topped out at $798 million in worldwide revenue. Earnings at 20th Century Fox more than doubled their best-ever mark in 1977, as did the company’s stock price.
Still, says Agatino Balio, a former professor of film at the University of Wisconsin who has written several books on movie industry history, not one of the underlying business strategies that created the “Star Wars” phenomenon was really all that novel.
“As a genre, and as a marketing strategy for a motion picture company, there wasn’t anything new about 'Star Wars' as a concept,” Balio says.
"Star Wars" would go on to be serialized, generating three decades of revenue through the release of sequels and prequels. But Balio points out that United Artists had pioneered the serial concept years before with the James Bond films. And “The Godfather” and “Jaws” had established themselves as “event” films with sweeping cultural impact while "Star Wars" was still an amorphous idea knocking around in George Lucas’ head. Star Wars can’t even claim the honor of being the first mega-blockbuster: After taking inflation into account, "Gone With The Wind" still ranks as the highest grossing movie of all time.
Nothing To Write Home About
As for depth of plot line , "Star Wars" certainly didn't open new territory. "The story of 'Star Wars' could be written on the head of a pin and still leave room for the Bible," said critic Vincent Canby of the New York Times.
All those things said, “Star Wars” did, indeed, break new ground. Even though it came along after "2001: A Space Odyssey," Lucas’ firm Industrial Light & Magic (which he founded only because 20th Century Fox had recently scrapped its special effects department) saw to it that “Star Wars” took effects—video, audio, robotic, miniature modeling and otherwise—to extremes previously unimagined.
Related Stories
* Jim Goldman: The Empire's Real Legacy
* Slideshow: Behind The Scenes At ILM
* StarWars.com
And for pure mythic originality, “Star Wars” represented something unprecedented: Arnold of the Post and Vincent Canby of “The New York Times” struggled to categorize the film, saying alternately in their first reviews that “Star Wars” evoked everything from Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, classic westerns, pirate melodramas and aerial combat films, to samurai epics, “Ivanhoe,” the Legend of King Arthur, and the Gospel According to St. Matthew.
Given that “Star Wars” was made for $11 million, its return on investment certainly surpassed anything before it and probably anything since. "Star Wars" accomplished that without the benefit of "saturation booking"—the relatively new industry practice of opening films in thousands of theaters on the same day. Not bad for a movie whose release 20th Century Fox execs moved to before Memorial Day because they were certain it wouldn’t be able to compete with that summer’s "Smokey and the Bandit."
Blockbuster Business Model
Today, a single film can cost $200 million to produce, and a hoped-for blockbuster may cost another $100 million to market, says Gordon Hodge, media analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners. In short, since the days of "Star Wars," the movie business has become a game of very big bets.
“When you think about the cost of just one film, you could even start a significant company with that kind of money,” Hodge says.
But consumer demand for the blockbuster remains. So, therefore, does studios’ incentive to turn out potential mega-hits. With the investment stakes higher than they've ever been before, motion picture companies have begun turning to financial devices that weren't available in 1977.
Today's movies have the benefit of revenue from DVD sales, which Hodge says often match box office sales. Because DVDs don’t require a huge marketing budget, they present less risk to the studios.
Movie companies have also begun mitigating risk by taking on banks and financial services firms as initial investment partners. Several banks and even hedge funds have developed formulas that factor actors, genres and other elements into account to gauge a film's chance of success. If they like the way the numbers come out, they get on board with the studio. Hodge cites Merrill Lynch's backing of Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" and "Hulk II," both slated for release in 2008.
Marvel Studios, which has borrowed more than one page from the "Star Wars" playbook, has proven itself a winner with its "SpiderMan" films. And it takes full advantage of the new, emerging—and unprecedented—financial tools at the disposal of today's film companies.
Taken in that context, "Star Wars" didn't so much herald the era of modern movie making, as it became the symbol—albeit a very successful one—of an age of filmmaking whose time has already passed by.
In case you needed another reason to get rid of your TV
Just in case you might be considering getting rid of your television altogether, here's one more reason to do it: A giant rat that teaches your children how to rap.
Mario: Game Over
Have you ever wondered what became of Mario and the Princess after Mario saved her?
Here is is. (WARNING: The bad language is censored, but you can still figure out what they're saying.)
Here is is. (WARNING: The bad language is censored, but you can still figure out what they're saying.)
The untimely demise of Bob Barker, may he rest in peace
Current mood: sad
Category: somber Movies, TV, Celebrities
Bob Barker, born December 12, 1923 - death May 7, 2007
Bob Barker was, by far, my favorite game show host. He was almost like a grandfather. He was very calm with people and remembered to have his pets spayed and neutered. Bob passed away today after being eaten by wolves as he was doing some gardening at his Beverley Hills home.
Barker hosted The Price Is Right from September 4, 1972 and announced that he would retire this year.
I appeared as a contestant on The Price Is Right in 1990 but never was able to get on stage. I received a lifetime supply of Turtle Wax as a consolation prize.
We'll miss you Mr. Barker. You were best in Happy Gilmore. Ciao!
Currently listening : Price Is Right By Alan Price Release date: By 01 October, 1996
Top 10 signs that your blog isn’t very popular
10. When checking your hitcounter, you can identify your regular readers by their IP addresses.
9. Your site has a PageRank of -3.
8. You have on more than one occasion unsuccessfully attempted to Slashdot or Instalanche your blog.
7. The bulk of your traffic is the result of obscure fetish seekers, and your blog happens to be the only site on the internet containing the words sexy German toes squishing creamed corn, but not necessarily in that order.
6. The last twenty visitors to your site? ALL YOU!
5. You log into your Adsense account and it says you owe Google $7.
4. The Truth Laid Bear had to create a special Ecosystem ranking just for you: Antimatter.
3. You shamelessly link and/or trackback to Instapundit, Malkin, Dooce, and Wil Wheaton, in the hopes of the off chance that they will see the link and visit your site.
2. No one ever responds to your meme tags.
And the number one sign that your blog isn’t popular:
Posting “FIRST!!!” in your comment threads is no great feat.
9. Your site has a PageRank of -3.
8. You have on more than one occasion unsuccessfully attempted to Slashdot or Instalanche your blog.
7. The bulk of your traffic is the result of obscure fetish seekers, and your blog happens to be the only site on the internet containing the words sexy German toes squishing creamed corn, but not necessarily in that order.
6. The last twenty visitors to your site? ALL YOU!
5. You log into your Adsense account and it says you owe Google $7.
4. The Truth Laid Bear had to create a special Ecosystem ranking just for you: Antimatter.
3. You shamelessly link and/or trackback to Instapundit, Malkin, Dooce, and Wil Wheaton, in the hopes of the off chance that they will see the link and visit your site.
2. No one ever responds to your meme tags.
And the number one sign that your blog isn’t popular:
Posting “FIRST!!!” in your comment threads is no great feat.
Utah Jazz
I have to admit, since the Stockton and Malone era, I haven't watched the Jazz as often. It may also have something to do with the fact that I'm older, more mature, married with children, and don't have as much time for basketball and other sports. Regardless of all that, I was able to watch part of the game tonight on the Internet using a program that let me watch a feed of the game from China. You see, I decided to downgrade my satellite TV to the $19.99 family package and TNT isn't included in that package. About one hour into the game I started googling frantically for search terms like "TNT on Internet", "NBA on Internet". I finally found what I was looking for and was able to catch the 2nd quarter. At halftime my connection decided to poop out and I was never able to get a feed again.
What I did see of the game, it looked like they were having fun. I love to watch The Jazz pass the ball around when they're on offence and make the opposing defense run and scurry. The way The Jazz pass the ball is almost artistic in a way. Back in the Stockton and Malone era you'd see the pick-and-roll all the time and it was usually a pass from Stockton to Malone and a score, or if Malone was covered he'd pass it back out, but it was rare to see more than about two or three passes. With this 2006-2007 Utah Jazz you'll see about 5, 6, 7, or 8 passes on offense. The Jazz also run a faster offense, their players are younger than the old Stockton and Malone teams.
Anyway, I'm just glad the Jazz beat Houston and will go to the next round against the Golden State Warriors. By the way, the Warriors are my new second favorite team by shear virtue of them beating Mark Cuban's team, the Dairy Queen Mavericks. I'm also glad that the games will be on ABC. I'm predicting a Jazz win over the Warriors and a Phoenix win over San Antonio. I don't think the Jazz can get past either Phoenix or San Antonio, however. The Jazz should have beat Houston in 5, instead they dragged it out to seven games. The upside is that the Jazz are relatively young and a 7 game series wont take as huge a toll as it would on the Stockton and Malone teams.
My prediction for the NBA finals is Phoenix from the West and Detroit from the East. But wouldn't it be cool to have a Jazz/Bulls rematch?
The next nice story tonight was RSL's 3-3 tie against the New York Red Bulls with new Head Coach, Jason Kreiss at the helm. Yeah, it wasn't a win, but New York is the best team in the league and hasn't given up a single goal this season, until tonight. I was also happy to see, former RSL player, Clint Mathis score two goals against his old mates. Hopefully Clint's found his game again. Maybe Mathis just does better in that kind of environment. RSL has Colorado on Thursday in Denver and I'm predicting 3 Points (a win) for RSL.
Panquecas
Panquecas or Crêpes
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
Put all ingredients in blender and and beat until smooth. Cook as you would for crêpes.
Filling
Use your favorite vegetarian filling, the chicken filling for Brazilian chicken pie or this ground beef filling:
1 lb very lean ground beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
fresh cilantro, finely chopped (if you can't find cilantro, use green onions and parsley)
oregano to taste
2 large hard-boiled eggs, chopped into small pieces
10-12 pitted green olives
Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil. Add ground beef, cilantro and oregano and cook until brown. It should be rather dry, not very much liquid at all. Remove from heat. Add olives and chopped eggs.
Making the panquecas
Fill each panqueca with this mixture and roll it up. Put panquecas together in a large Pyrex. Cover with tomato sauce, sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese, and warm in oven or microwave. Serve piping hot with white rice and green salad.
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
Put all ingredients in blender and and beat until smooth. Cook as you would for crêpes.
Filling
Use your favorite vegetarian filling, the chicken filling for Brazilian chicken pie or this ground beef filling:
1 lb very lean ground beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
fresh cilantro, finely chopped (if you can't find cilantro, use green onions and parsley)
oregano to taste
2 large hard-boiled eggs, chopped into small pieces
10-12 pitted green olives
Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil. Add ground beef, cilantro and oregano and cook until brown. It should be rather dry, not very much liquid at all. Remove from heat. Add olives and chopped eggs.
Making the panquecas
Fill each panqueca with this mixture and roll it up. Put panquecas together in a large Pyrex. Cover with tomato sauce, sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese, and warm in oven or microwave. Serve piping hot with white rice and green salad.
PHP and MySQL
For about the last 2 months or so I've been learning PHP and MySQL to create server side scripting for Web sites with a database backend. Let me just say that this has been very fun and challenging at the same time. I have written a quiz that tracks who takes the quiz and what their answers are. I have written a Web crawler that will crawl a site for Hyperlinks and put them onto the Web page (useful if you want to start a search engine or if you're harvesting links for a database). I wanted to get started with JSP with a Tomcat Web Server but I've been having issues with it. Someone at school suggested that I try PHP. I found a great book called "Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP and MySQL" by Kevin Yank. It can be found at http://www.sitepoint.com/books/phpmysql1/
Here is the code for my Web Crawler:
Here is the code for my Web Crawler:
/
<html>
<head><title>Web Crawler</title></head>
<body>
<form id="form1" method="post" action="">
<label>URL:
<input name="url" type="text" id="url" value="<?php $url; ?>" size="65" maxlength="255" />
</label>
<br />
<br />
<label>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit" />
</label>
<label>
<input name="Reset" type="reset" id="Reset" value="Reset" />
</label>
<br />
</form>
</body>
</html>
<?php
if (isset($_POST['url'])) {
$url = $_POST['url'];
$f = @fopen($url,"r");
while( $buf = fgets($f,1024) )
{
$buf = fgets($f, 4096);
preg_match_all("/<\s*a\s+[^>]*href\s*=\s*[\"']?([^\"' >]+)[\"' >]/isU",$buf,$words);
for( $i = 0; $words[$i]; $i++ )
{
for( $j = 0; $words[$i][$j]; $j++ )
{
$cur_word = strtolower($words[$i][$j]);
print "$cur_word<br>";
}
}
}
}
?>
Battlefield 2142 Screenshots
It's 2:19 in the freaking morning. Here are some screenshots in slide show format. Good night:
School's PTA Web site hit by scam 'phishing' for data
I think I know one of the guys that got quoted in this news article. I'm not sure, but I think he's related to me. :)
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1%2C1249%2C660191694%2C00.html
School's PTA Web site hit by scam 'phishing' for data
Bank logo posted by hackers asked for personal information
By Laura Hancock
Deseret Morning News
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — A Web site formerly used by Pony Express Elementary's PTA became entangled in a phishing scam.
Sometime recently, hackers got access to software that parent Gerald Banks used for www.ponyexpresselementary.org. The hackers posted on the site the logo for Regions Bank, the nation's eighth largest, with offices in 16 states from Florida to Iowa but none in Utah.
"They were trying to get your name, your Social Security number, your Visa debit card number, just as much personal and financial information as they could," said Roger Douglass, another Pony Express parent who spotted the scheme because he works for Blue Coat Systems, a Web security company in Draper.
Douglass routinely looks for phishing schemes at work and found the scheme involving Pony Express Elementary on Wednesday when visiting phishtank.com, an online community where people voluntarily post Web sites they believe have been overtaken by phishers.
The scheme probably was posted on phishtank.com after a member of the Web community received a spam e-mail from people claiming to be bank officials, visited the Pony Express site and found what he perceived was a scam, Douglass said.
"And I recognized it because it's my daughter's elementary school," Douglass said. "So that's kind of what made me go, 'Whoa, wait a second ..."'
Douglass called Banks, who said by Wednesday afternoon he had already taken down www.ponyexpresselementary.org, after receiving notifications about the scheme from the Alpine School District and XMission, the Web site's host.
PTA leaders used the site last year to advertise events at the Eagle Mountain school. It has not been updated since then, Banks said.
"We monitor for these sites constantly, and whenever we see them we act as quickly as possible to contact our customers and even non-customers who might be fooled into entering personal information," said Rick Swagler, spokesman for Regions Bank.
Swagler said such schemes are typically reported to the federal government.
"The bank will never send you an e-mail asking you for personal information or asking you to update information," Swagler said.
The banking industry works together to try to curb phishers.
According to the American Bankers Association, 25,816 phishing Web sites were discovered in November, an increase from previous months.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1%2C1249%2C660191694%2C00.html
School's PTA Web site hit by scam 'phishing' for data
Bank logo posted by hackers asked for personal information
By Laura Hancock
Deseret Morning News
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — A Web site formerly used by Pony Express Elementary's PTA became entangled in a phishing scam.
Sometime recently, hackers got access to software that parent Gerald Banks used for www.ponyexpresselementary.org. The hackers posted on the site the logo for Regions Bank, the nation's eighth largest, with offices in 16 states from Florida to Iowa but none in Utah.
"They were trying to get your name, your Social Security number, your Visa debit card number, just as much personal and financial information as they could," said Roger Douglass, another Pony Express parent who spotted the scheme because he works for Blue Coat Systems, a Web security company in Draper.
Douglass routinely looks for phishing schemes at work and found the scheme involving Pony Express Elementary on Wednesday when visiting phishtank.com, an online community where people voluntarily post Web sites they believe have been overtaken by phishers.
The scheme probably was posted on phishtank.com after a member of the Web community received a spam e-mail from people claiming to be bank officials, visited the Pony Express site and found what he perceived was a scam, Douglass said.
"And I recognized it because it's my daughter's elementary school," Douglass said. "So that's kind of what made me go, 'Whoa, wait a second ..."'
Douglass called Banks, who said by Wednesday afternoon he had already taken down www.ponyexpresselementary.org, after receiving notifications about the scheme from the Alpine School District and XMission, the Web site's host.
PTA leaders used the site last year to advertise events at the Eagle Mountain school. It has not been updated since then, Banks said.
"We monitor for these sites constantly, and whenever we see them we act as quickly as possible to contact our customers and even non-customers who might be fooled into entering personal information," said Rick Swagler, spokesman for Regions Bank.
Swagler said such schemes are typically reported to the federal government.
"The bank will never send you an e-mail asking you for personal information or asking you to update information," Swagler said.
The banking industry works together to try to curb phishers.
According to the American Bankers Association, 25,816 phishing Web sites were discovered in November, an increase from previous months.
New host
I really like Blogger.com/Blogspot.com but I have my own domain. When I figured out that my host supports PHP script and MySQL database I figured that it was probably time to start hosting my blog there since I'm paying for 5 gigs of space and only use about 100 Megs of it. I am also going to be working on an open source project that requires me to use PHP and MySQL and it might be a good time to start learning PHP and practicing up on MySQL. PHP seems pretty straight forward, it's a scripting language which means that it's not really a programming language but it can be used to make logical decisions and parse data that is fed to it from a data base or a user. Most likely what I will be using it for on my site is Web-based forms which allow a user to input their information. I will eventually have a Web-based storefront and start selling my kids online. I'M ONLY KIDDING, PLEASE QUIT CALLING DCFS ALREADY!
Happy 95th Birthday Grandpa!
My Grandpa Doc was born January 31, 1912, a little bit more than 3 month before the Titanic set sail and ran into an iceberg, five years before the USA entered World War I (not World War II). My grandfather lived through the Great Depression (the biggest oxymoron in our languge, there was nothing great about it.) My grandpa taught me how to golf and how to swear, for hellsakes. My grandpa also taught me the value of a dollar, of course he taught me the value of a 1942 dollar and not a 1982 dollar, but that's beside the point. My grandpa taught me to eat beans and love it. He never perfected them and I thought the only good beans were the kind you buy in a can (because they were soft) until I went to Brazil and discovered that the trick is to put them in a pressure cooker and season them with onions and bay leaves.My grandpa passed away 6 years ago and Salt Lake City has been less colorful ever since. There's nobody left to tell ethnic jokes and lawyer jokes. He was the last politically incorrect person I knew. He'd go to a restaurant and call the waitress, "honey" or "sweetheart". He'd refer to women as gals. Yeah, that's sexist, and I wont repeat any of it. The ethnic jokes are better off dead too and I should have never laughed at them. But my grandpa was one funny sunuvabitch!
What if I were an ad executive?
It might go something like this:
I created this image using a photo of BooKoo and a freeware program called The Gimp version 2.2.13
I created this image using a photo of BooKoo and a freeware program called The Gimp version 2.2.13
Fast Food Franchise Owners
I used to work for a fast food franchise somewhere in a college town in Northern Utah. I really don't want to say what the company is or who the owner is because the people that read this blog on a regular basis will know who I'm talking about anyway.One of the benefits (downsides) to having kids is that you get to watch lots of cartoons. Mr. G's (the son I named and older version of this blog after) favorite cartoon is "Spongebob Square Pants". Spongebob's boss is Mr. Eugene Krabs. Mr. Krabs favorite expressions are, "I like money." and "The money is always right." If Mr. Krabs were being shot at and his daughter was on one side of the room and a penny were on the other side of the room. He would risk his life to save the penny first and his daughter second. In the Spongebob movie, Mr. Krabs sees King Neptune coming to his restaurant and marks up his sandwiches to the $100 range.
The owner of the fast food franchise where I worked found out that another franchise for the same chain was charging more for their fries. Instead of using the opportunity to advertise that his price was lower, he used to opportunity to raise the price on his own fries. He required all of us to charge .10 cents for any extra items that didn't already come on the sandwich. For example, one sandwich didn't come with pickles, but a customer asked for pickles. I tried to charge the customer an extra 10 cents as I had been instructed and got into an argument with the customer. Instead of defending me, the owner told the customer what a S.O.B. I was and refunded his .10 cents. Part of the owner's franchise agreement with the chain was that his employees were required to give out two packets of free condiments with every sandwich sold. He found out how much this was costing him and told us only to give them out if the customers asked for them. How many times have you gone to a fast food place and forgot to ask for the ketchup? Some of these places are exactly the same, they don't give it out unless you ask. Customers get in the habit of the condiments being placed in the bag without having to ask. When a cheapskate owner decides that he's going to save money by cutting back on the condiments all it does is make customers angry and not want to come back.
Anyway, in honor of my former employer, I have used The Gimp to draw his likeness and post it on this blog and am declaring January 30 cheapskate franchise owner day. I used to also work in the hospitality industry and hotel franchise owners are a bunch of cheapskates too. (Okay, not all of them, just most.) Today is the day where you get to tell your kids that you're too cheap to buy a 10 pack of pencils but instead cut one pencil into 10 pieces for your kids to share. The kid that makes the most mistakes gets the eraser. Instead of throwing away that bottle of ketchup that has less than a teaspoon of ketchup left, put a little water in it and shake it up. You can do this 3 or 4 times before you have to throw the bottle away. Instead of buying a fancy gourmet pizza, go to the store and by a 91 cent Tostinos pizza and put your favorite vegetables on top of it; may I suggest the Danish blue cheese and frozen peas as toppings? It's out of this world. Instead of throwing away that bottle of maple syrup that the ants got into, tell your kids that there are two kinds of syrup in this world: creamy and crunchy. Instead of buying your kid his favorite comic book, buy him a ream of printer paper and a Bic fountain pen with the black, red, green, and blue ink and tell him to draw his own comics.
Yay, yay, yay, it's International Cheapskate Day. Sing it high, sing it loud, sing it low, sing it proud! It's International Cheapskate Day. We love you L.W.!!!
My prescription for a bad headache
Take one Rockstar and two Excedrin Tension Headache Geltabs and call me in the morning.
Peter Corroon really chaps my hide
Can I just say, I hate Peter Corroon more than any other politician in the world right now? That would include Kim Jong "mentally" Ill and that idiot in Iran. Here's a post about it from KSL's site:
"[Stadiums] are a revenue source for the community that surrounds them. The E-Center is used for events other than hockey and it brings a good amount of money into West Valley. That's why West Valley supports it. Art centers and planetariums encourage learning, learning encourages invention, invention encourages business, business encourages tax revenue. Everything is about economics. Why did you get married? Love? I don't think so. Because two people working is more economical than one and there's a tax break for married couples. Why are we fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan? Because we were attacked by terrorists on 9-11-01? Yes. And how did that effect us financially as a nation? It was one of the worst times in our economic history since the 1930s. By controlling the regions where the terrorists come out of, we also control their ability to attack us and affect our economy.
People here seem to think that soccer wont bring in money because soccer has never been popular or because they don't like it. Soccer is growing and will continue to grow. David Beckham is more well known than Michael Jordan and he now plays in our 2nd largest city, Los Angeles. Ronaldo, who plays for Real Madrid and Brazil's national team has expressed interest in playing in New York for the Red Bulls. Did Michael Jordan sell tickets for the NBA and close TV deals and make advertising revenue? HELL YEAH! Will Beckham and Ronaldo do the same? Again, HELL YEAH!
One of my art teachers at UVSC, Perry Stewart said there are two ways of looking at something, you can either look directly at the object, or look past the object. It's when you learn to look past the object that your best art comes out. I think this analogy applies here, because people are focusing on what soccer has been, not what it will become. Look through the raindrops on your windshield and you will see the road ahead. Look past the money that is being used to fund the infrastructure and see the revenue that soccer Super-Stars and the world economy will bring to Utah.
Of course that's my opinion, I could be wrong."
South Pass and William Henry Ashley
I'm reading a book about the early exploration of the American West, before and after the Louisiana purchase. One of the most significant finds by explorers was South Pass, a pass that allowed relatively easy passage over the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide. I don't live too far away from South Pass but was never aware of its existence or importance until reading about it.
In 1822 Ashley and business partner Andrew Henry -- a bullet maker whom he met through his gunpowder business -- posted famous advertisements in St. Louis newspapers seeking one hundred "enterprising young men . . . to ascend the river Missouri to its source, there to be employed for one, two, or three years." The men who responded to this call became known as "Ashley's Hundred." Between 1822 and 1825, Ashley and Henry's Rocky Mountain Fur Company, did several large scale fur trapping expeditions in the mountain west. Ashley's men are officially credited with the American discovery of South Pass in the winter of 1824. Ashley devised the rendezvous system in which trappers, Indians and traders would meet annually in a predetermined location to exchange furs, goods and money. His innovations in the fur trade earned Ashley a great deal of money and recognition, and helped open the western part of the continent to American expansion. In 1828 he explored present-day northern Colorado, ascending the South Platte River to the base of the Front Range, then ascending the Cache la Poudre River to the Laramie Plains and onward to the Green River.
This One Is For Troy!
Troy says that every time he sees this he thinks of me. Personally, I'd like to know what you're implying Troy. Huh? Howz bout it? Anyway, here it is, a clip from Bedazzled where he wishes to be a world class basketball player, a player that moves and jumps like Jordan, that shoots like Hornacek and is as tall as Bradley. He doesn't count on the Devil having a sense of humor. He is lacking in one thing, well at least one thing. Enjoy.
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