Around the Blawgosphere: yFrog Flaw Behind 'Weinergate'?; Han Solo Practice; Marler's Yard Birds
Hacking into yFrog
We’ve all heard the story: New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s Twitter account posted a photo of “a man’s bulging underpants” over Memorial Day weekend; Weiner says that his account was hacked. And, indeed, Ars Technica’s Law & Disorder blog notes that the image and video hosting service yFrog is a relatively easy nut to crack.
Once an image is emailed to a specialized email address made for that user’s Twitter account, the image is automatically posted. “The yFrog email addresses given to users aren’t public, but they also aren’t hard to crack with some patience and some brute force” because the format is usually the user’s Twitter handle a period and another short word @yfrog.com, Jacqui Cheng writes at Law & Disorder. “And because yFrog apparently accepts submissions to those secret email addresses from any account, any prankster who has guessed the random dictionary word could send a photo to Weiner’s account as if it were from Weiner himself.”
When the Force Is with You …
Adrian Baron writes at The Nutmeg Lawyer about the parallels in his legal career to the journeys of different Star Wars characters.
The small-firm lawyer of course first takes notice of the pilot of the Millennium Falcon. “Die hard fans of Star Wars may know that Han Solo almost went the corporate route,” Baron wrote. “He had once been a cadet in the Imperial Academy. Han gave up his plans to become an Imperial officer in order to skim the stars with a Wookiee at his side. He wanted to be his own boss.”
Baron also finds lessons in Jabba the Hutt’s sensible choice of locating his headquarters on grungy Tatooine (Baron’s firm once had a booming satellite office near a strip club) and C-3P0’s rescue from the scrap heap because of his knowledge of 6 million languages (Baron speaks Polish and has found this helpful in his practice).
On Not Chickening Out
At The Xemplar™, a relatively new blog that does monthly profiles of “independent attorneys,” blogger Nicole Black wrote a profile of food-safety lawyer Bill Marler. The post not only gives readers a brief sketch of Marler’s career but a glimpse of how his career litigating food-borne illness cases has seeped into his home life—specifically, how the Marler family came to own chickens.
“It happened after I was on Larry King,” Marler said. “In response to one of his questions about ways to prevent food poisoning, I jokingly said, ‘I’m thinking about getting my own chickens.’ When I returned from Los Angeles, my 12-year-old met me at the door and said, ‘We’re getting chickens, right?’ Now I have six chickens.”
Gone to the Dogs
Connecticut lawyer Ryan McKeen noted his favorite amendment of the state’s legislative session at A Connecticut Law Blog. Subsection (a) of the law in question outlaws owning or harboring “a dog or dogs which is or are a nuisance by reason of vicious disposition or excessive barking or other disturbance.”
The exception, however: “(b) The provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall not be deemed to apply to any dog engaged in any of the following activities: (1) Romping on the beach, (2) frolicking in a dog park, (3) participating in doggie day care, (4) dog sledding, (5) tracking a person, (6) treeing a raccoon, (7) chasing rabbits or butterflies, (8) riding on fire-fighting vehicles, or (9) herding livestock.”
