Salon.Com Estimates Alex Jones’ Financials

Salon.com has an fun time estimating just how much conspiracy nut Alex Jones pulls in each year from his various media operations.

So let’s go back to the scoreboard and try to add up our inexact, educated guesstimate into a grand total. On the very low end, we’d estimate a little over $1 million for Web, $215,000 for radio, and $1.5 million for paid subscribers for a not-too-shabby $2.7 million a year. On the high end, if we assume he pulls in the maximum $6 million on Web, another $450,000 on the radio (if his ad rates are at the top of their possible window), and he has 2.5 percent of his website visitors paying to subscribe, then we’re talking about more than $10 million a year. And none of this includes book sales, merch, speaking tours, promotional tie-ins, book and DVD royalties or any other revenue streams that might exist.

So the next time you want to dismiss Jones as crazy, ask yourself how many people would pay $5.95 a month to watch you talk about Justin Bieber.

On the other hand, what’s the point of making millions of dollars if you are the target of the revenge of the nerds?

That’s right, Alex. We’re using our brains, and we’re coming for you with our Magic: The Gathering cards, so watch your back.

Limit Login Attempts for WordPress

For the most part, I think criticisms of WordPress security are largely overblown. When you look at some of the more prominent hacks against WordPress-powered blogs, they tend to be due to common security problems, such as poor security models on virtual hosting servers or people who do not keep their WordPress install and plugins updated.

But occasionally I do shake my head at some WordPress practices. Take, for example, the Limit Login Attempts plugin that I use on this site. The plugin is straightforward–if someone tries to login with an account and gets the password wrong four times in a row, that account will be locked for 20 minutes.

It is probably overkill for me because no one’s going to brute force my admin account password–it is far too long and random to guess even with days worth of trying. Still, it’s just a good idea if only to shoo away potential hackers.

What pisses me off, though, is that I have to go download a plugin in order to accomplish this. For the love of all that is nerdy, why the hell is rate limiting login attempts not a feature in the WordPress core already (and one that should be turned on by default IMO)? That is an elementary security tool and it is mind boggling that this something that a vanilla WordPress install lacks.