Big scam or scared of the mob?
So this guy has been selling figurines on eBay since 1997. He didn't much care for or about figurines, but there was good money in it. He managed to rack up 6,100 positive reviews and about 50 negative reviews over that period. He announced late last year that he had acquired a lot of really sought after figurines in an estate sale and put them all on eBay. Lots of people jumped in and bought them. Then he wrote to the people who came in second and third for each auction telling them the winners had fallen through and they were now the winner, so they paid as well. A few days after the auctions ended he liquidated about $220k from his family's accounts (and they suspect there were others that his family didn't know about) and then one day announced he was going to lunch and never came back. They think he disappeared with about $400k. Information from his computer suggests that he may have gotten in really bad with online gambling. So perhaps he's running from the law. But you have to laugh (I did) at the people who got taken... sending cashiers checks and stuff like that. How stupid.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/713634.asp

Distributed Reflective Denial of Service (from Tom)
This is a really tough read and most of my normal readers shouldn't even attempt it. But it's an interesting look at how to really cause headaches for ISPs and take down the internet.
http://grc.com/dos/drdos.htm

Waaaaah.... waaaaah.... (from Lori)
The whiney baby poor sports (and perhaps inferior athletes) of Russia are crying. If Canada gets an extra gold medal, they want one, too. I agree. Free gold medals for everyone. You don't have to be the best, you just have to trade votes or raise a large enough stink. So now the Russians say that depending on how the judging of the hockey game against the United States goes, they may go home. That is, if they don't win, they walk. I say good riddance. But I say that they shouldn't get to keep the toys. If a country leaves the games early, they should have to leave the medals behind. Stupid whiney babies.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020222/ts/olympics_russia_dc_8.html

Sprint PCS sucks in New York
http://www.epinions.com/content_56764829316/s_~na

Meercats (for Lori)
http://www.msnbc.com/c/0/63/285/10x7/twip_2002_0221_02.jpg

Dietary...
   Fred wants to know why anyone who only weighs 188 (down to 187 now! woo) would see the need to diet. I know Fred. He was my college roommate for several years, so he probably saw the weight go on gradually. But I swear, I looked in the mirror yesterday and thought "This is what Homer Simpson would look like if he got fat." It's time to lose some weight. Exercise? Maybe.
   The rest of day 3... pre-dinner snack: two hard-boiled egg whites... dinner: dijon chicken and green beans... cheat: a handful of cheez-its... pre-bedtime snack: egg-white and lunch meat omlette
   Day 4... pre-breakfast: cantelope... breakfast: bowl of special k... mid-morning: cantelope... lunch: salad with lunch meat... mid-afternoon: yogurt...