So, I got an email from the owner of CupCakeFrenzy today. It, basically, asked me what I knew about the malicious code left on her websites. Malicious code in a really inept way. Apparently there was/is something broken about the way her websites write out their meta-tags. Meta-tags are HTML code, invisible to the naked eye (so to speak), that ostensibly indicate what the page is about. Some moderately feeble search engines use META tags to index webpages but sensible engines de-emphasize their use. Google, for one, does not really seem to pay much attention to them anymore. They are an easy way to foul up the validity of page rankings because any value you give them is reliant on the intention of the page owner for them to reflect the content of the page. For example, I could put a bunch of meta-tags in the code of this page that said the page was about "the cupcake that wouldn't die", but not have any actual content relating to "the cupcake that wouldn't die" in the body of the page. If you were searching for "The cupcake that wouldn't die" you'd be very disappointed by that page. Of course, you'd be happy with THIS page, which doesn't have any meta-tags at all because this page really is about the cupcake that wouldn't die. In fact, by actually writing "the cupcake that wouldn't die" several times in the body of this page it becomes likely that this webpage will become a search result, eventually, for searches related to "the cupcake that wouldn't die") Anyway, her tech consultant (who never returned a call or email of mine while I was at CupCakeFrenzy) thinks this "malicious" code was a nastygram from an ex-employee. Or possibly just the result of a bad programmer. Well, when it comes to the kind of programming we were doing at CupCakeFrenzy I cannot claim to be a particularly good programmer, but I am not so bad that I would have made the mistake that I am being accused of. I might have MISSED that mistake in someone else's code, sure. Additionally -- I am certainly not so bad a programmer that, were I to try and code something malicious on my way out of somewhere, it would be something that had NO effect on the end-user experience, whatsoever, and was related to malforming data that is BARELY used for any purpose whatsoever. Not inserting BAD data, mind you, just MALFORMING the data that is there. AND I wouldn't do anything like that anyway. I may fantasize about giving them the finger on my way out (Ooh! Naughty boy!) but I would not not NOT actually do anything. It's just not in my nature. Really, I think the accusations say more about her than they do about me. ------------------------------------------ Got a new job. Temping. Doing telephone tech support for internal systems at a giant company. It's OK: not great, not terrible. The people are nice and apsychotic. The pay is crappy, the hours are weird (6am to 3pm). But boy I sure needed to grab something because, seemingly, WE GOT THE HOUSE. Woo! We and the sellers have agreed on the final sale price, everything seems to be in order and we sent off our final loan forms earlier today. It's possible, I guess, that our loan falls through (knock on wood, lucky lucky chicken bones, etc) but unlikely. With just a little bit of luck and the continued good advice and help we have already been receiving, we should be in before Thanksgiving. Holy crap. ------------------------------------------ In the time it took me to write the above I got another email from CupCakeFrenzy, saying that they weren't accusing me of anything and just wanted my input. Hmm. Truly, the cupcake that wouldn't die.