* Posts by Ferret

11 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2009

Feds unlock suspect's encrypted drive, avoid Constitution meltdown

Ferret
Mushroom

Re: from the crowd

In the United States, the authorities doing anything to anyone is acceptable to a majority of the populace - so long as it's happening to someone else.

Mexican woman gets litigious on Top Gear's ass

Ferret
Joke

...and that's why

Mexico will continue to be relegated to the children's table at the banquet of nations until such time as they develop a sense of humor.

Moms stand firm against antenna madness

Ferret
Megaphone

On the positive side...

I imagine that driver and pedestrian safety on local streets in the are will increase by orders of magnitude once the cell sites are shut down. That is considering that these very same moms who use their lifestyle-accessory-only children as a lever to effect world change will be spending much more time, while at the helm of their gargantuan sport-utility-crossover-vehicles. actually paying attention to their driving instead of texting or blabbering on their phones.

Harry Potter theme park magically swallows big visitors

Ferret
Joke

I'm waiting patiently...

...for Mr. Creosote's wild ride.

iPad bandits stake out NYC Apple store

Ferret
Coat

The pinnacle of civilization

What in the past would have been an example of "Frontier justice" has evolved into a much more civilized state. Where the so-called sneak thief would have been shot or lynched on the spot for his misdeeds, things are vastly different in the modern-day metropolis.

Instead, in our civilized society, a heavily armed (and properly licensed, of course) private security guard is hired to protect the interests and property of the Apple corporation's New York operations up to and including giving a severe case of lead poisoning to any miscreants who should have the audacity to try and help themselves to said property. Subsequent to all such incidents, a swarm of low-level government functionaries will descend upon the scene to issue citations to the thief for multiple counts of dumping a hazardous substance in a public place (leaving several pints of blood and a dead body on the sidewalk) and all onlookers for loitering too close to an incident site in which citations are being issued. Several onlookers will also be tased, kicked, and charged with resisting arrest for daring to ask why they are receiving a citation for loitiering.

The family of the thief then sues the security guard, the Apple corporation, the New York Police Department, and a 62-year-old man from Elko, Nevada who just happened to be nearby. The city of New York simultaneously counter-sues the thief's family and all others within a two-block radius of their residence, for biohazard cleanup costs plus the cost in man-hours of all citation-issuing government personnel involved at the scene of the incident, plus interest extrapolated out based on the estimated 15 years of litigation.

Thus, life goes on in the (civilized) big city. The lead still flies, but more money changes hands as a result and we all feel secure in our superiority to our forebears.

US gives Chinese man 2.5 years over fake Cisco kit

Ferret
WTF?

Is anyone else wondering why...

...we have yet to hear about people in China being prosecuted for actually *manufacturing* the fake Cisco gear?

Inmate gets 18 months for thin client prison hack

Ferret
Coffee/keyboard

@ Why is it...

If they fired the company in charge of network administration, they would probably have to hire the company in the number two position in the original bid who, naturally, would charge more money for their services.

As it stands, said company will most likely fire some low-level tech from their staff, plug the security hole which was exploited, and keep rolling along - business as usual.

Escape key 'cuz - well, what does anyone in a prison want to do?

China executes securities trader over $9.52m fraud

Ferret
IT Angle

Arguably, his only mistake was...

...stealing from the bank as opposed to stealing from people.

That aside, I can't help but wonder if the embezzlement was done through routing fractional remainders of every transaction into a separate account so as to fund the construction of a massive, sentient supercomputer?

Police charge anarchist over G20 protest network

Ferret
Black Helicopters

The next logical step...

...would be for those directing protesters in this manner to do so from outside the jurisdiction in which the protest is occurring. Ironically, they would use the same technologies which enabled the outsourcing of many of our IT jobs to protest the actions of those who are, directly or indirectly, perceived as responsible for it in the first place.

Of course we will undoubtedly see areas of "limited mobile phone service" at the next G-<whatever> summit, intended to preclude just such a possibility.

The black helicopter - because this can only escalate further as time goes on as more and more angry people have less and less to lose.

Feds suffer from 'serious' IT security talent shortage

Ferret
Megaphone

How long...

...will it take for those in charge of filling those security positions to rationalize the outsourcing/insourcing of these jobs outweighs the need for staff with the proper security clearances.

Network giants reject 'buy American' Obama mandate

Ferret
Pirate

It's not really cheaper in many cases

Where I work, our voice and data infrastructure is 100% Cisco and has been for several years now. During that time, I have noticed a shift in the "country of origin" labels on our networking gear from 'Made in Mexico' to 'Made in China'. What I have not seen is this supposed drop in price. If anything, pricing on the same model devices has gone up. The savings of relocation manufacturing seems generally to go into the bottom-line profit for the company and is rarely passed on to the consumer.

Regarding the counterfeit Cisco gear floating around - how do you think the counterfeiters got their hands on the design specs for that equipment in the first place? Why, from the factory down the street, in exchange for a few paper bags full of cash. Cisco's legal dogs have a lot less bite in mainland China than they would have had if the same situation happened in the U.S.