The troubles with the evil wp_footer exploit continue. My friend Roy alerted me to the fact that wp_footer had reappeared and was once again creating spam links in my footer. Those spam links went to Scott Rosenberg’s site, Wordyard. I contacted Scott and he told me he knew his site had been hijacked to host these spam pages and he was busy cleaning it up. He helpfully told me that “wp_footer” was being called by some rogue code in the “default-filters” file which can be found in the folder “wp-includes.”

Click to enlarge

Scott also pointed out that I should delete another rogue file, “class-mail,” also found within the folder, “wp-includes.”

Let’s see if this solves the problem.

I’d like to thank reader “Donk” for pointing out the hidden spam links cluttering my footer. Somehow it gets inserted at the highlighted section of code - php wp_footer(); - see enlarged screenshot below.

Click to enlarge

I just deleted that line of code which didn’t mess anything up and gets rid of the spam. Does anyone have any insight into how this happened?

The Death of E-Mail, by Chad Lorenz

“… I realized that my agility with e-mail no longer marked me as a tech-savvy young adult. It made me a lame old fogey.”

I’m a lame old fogey too. I have a Twitter account; never use it, never will… I’m just not into the hyperactive thing. I’m on Facebook; never visit it except to deny “friend” requests, lol. Have a Tumblr account (microblogging); never use it (I have a macroblog after all). I refuse to get a Blackberry (despite repeated threats and no cost to me). Just leave me the heck alone already.

Murdoch Sees End to Journal Web Fees

“‘… we expect to make [wsj.com] free, and instead of having one million [subscribers], having at least 10 million to 15 million [visitors] in every corner of the earth, keeping up-to-date minute by minute with all business and economic news from around the world,’ Mr. Murdoch told Australian shareholders at a meeting in Adelaide.”

If the Wall Street Journal online had been free from day one, both Cramer’s baby, thestreet.com, and marketwatch.com never could have been built. Dow Jones paid half a billion dollars for MarketWatch, just to watch it die — what a waste. Anyone care to quantify the opportunity cost of the terrible decision by DJ management to make wsj.com a subscriber-only site?

Michael Lewis wrote a semi-funny piece on November 6, O’Neal’s Agony, or, in the Bunker With Stan. He credited the Bespoke guys (October 25) for “first bringing [O’Neal’s scores] to public attention,” which was nice (nicer if he linked to them). I wonder if Jeff Matthews got the idea for his October 31 post, Chipping and Putting While Merrill Burns, from the Bespoke post as well. If he did, he wasn’t gracious enough to say so — a breach of netiquette. The financial blogosphere is a very small world; be careful to give credit where it’s due.

Here’s a nice retrospective look at Yahoo’s homepage versus Google’s, 1996-2005.

Click to enlarge

And here’s how YHOO’s stock price has performed relative to GOOG’s (since Google came public in August 2004). This is a comparison I’ve long liked to make — June 20, 2007 | October 11, 2006.

Thanks to the folks who sent me old newsletters, but I still need one PDF issue for each of the remaining five newsletters, and have upped the reward to $10:

• The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast ($10) (Thanks, Steve)
• FredHager.com ($10)
• John Dessauer’s Investor’s World ($10)
• Lowry’s Power & Velocity Ratings ($10) (Thanks, Chris)
• MPT Review ($10) (Thanks, Steven)

Remember, I’m not looking for the most recent issue; any old issue will do as long as it’s complete. (Someone cleverer than me could probably use Google to find a copy of each of them, no? Is $10 worth one’s while to photocopy and scan an issue from the local library?) Don’t send me a copy immediately since someone else may have already done so and claimed the ten dineros. Just email me to tell me you’ve got the goods and then we’ll do the deal.

Thanks again for your help!

I am interested in getting one PDF issue of each of the following newsletters:

• Bob J. Brinker’s Marketimer ($5) (Thanks, Jon)
• The Chartist ($5) (Thanks, Bill)
• The Dines Letter ($5) (Thanks, Jason)
• Dow Theory Letters ($5) (Thanks, Jennifer)
• The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast ($5)
• FredHager.com ($5)
• InvesTech Market Analyst ($5) (Thanks, Jennifer)
• John Dessauer’s Investor’s World ($5)
• Lowry’s Power & Velocity Ratings ($5)
• MPT Review ($5)
• The Prudent Speculator ($5) (Thanks, Bill)

I’m not looking for the most recent issue; any old issue will do as long as it’s complete. Don’t send me a copy immediately since someone else may have already done so and claimed the five smackeroos. Just email me to tell me you’ve got the goods and then we’ll do the deal.

Thanks for your help!

I decided to widen the body of the blog and stop accommodating the readers whose screen resolutions are below 1000 px wide. As you can see from my Google Analytics stats, these top ten resolutions represent around 95% of the total, and only 4.46% of my readers are looking at 800×600 screens — to them I bid good-bye.

I’ve started to run Feedburner ads on the site, which is something that I should have done ages ago but didn’t because I’m both lazy and clueless. Anyway, I’m thrilled to see that ads for Viagra are now running alongside the Gratuitous Cute Chick Pics.