Posts by John Tserkezis 2242 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2007
"Actually, EVERY "free" WiFi provider in London with a few exceptions like Starbucks too - with BT you actually don't get service until you agree they can abuse your details for spam"
Agreed, and it's not only London, it works like this in Australia too.
When I tell people I carry my portable WiFi access point with me, they wonder why, when there's a plethora of "free" WiFi access points around the city. Except, like you said, few are really free.
"then set up a rule in your inbox forwarding all email to that address"
Note, that the vast majority of email from those addresses quote "do not reply". That is, you can send stuff to that address, but no-one will see it, count it, or even store it for longer than a piece of software needs to determine it isn't valid and then delete it.
If it's an official quoted email address, you can be sure it's properly vetted for spam, out of context content, and a vast array of other filters before it even gets to a human. And even THEN there's no bet they'll respond. (though some companies are better than others).
"They even put them in plain (sometimes official looking brown) paper envelopes so you're more likely to be fooled in to opening them."
I had a few stern words to our Australian Tax Office who LOVES those plain brown envelopes with "URGENT" marked on the front (along with no "from" address either).
I said, that was nice, but it appears every junk mailer on the planet had the same idea. So, if they didn't want me to "accidently" throw out their unmarked mail, to change that.
They explained that statistically, more people would handle the mail unmarked, rather than throw it away knowing it was from the ATO.
So that's why junk mail works. We're surrounded by idiots.
"more to do with the militarization of the police and their eagerness to play commando instead of starting with a more reasoned response."
So you want the police to treat them like dignified individuals, to ask questions first and shoot later? Or preferably not shoot at all? Even better, just say they were mistreated teenagers and let them off with a warning.
Tell you what. Volunteer for a "swatting" some time, and then open your fat mouth and tell me how much fun it was.
"Rule 34 suddenly just get a lot more real?"
I don't think so. If animation was sellable in that genre, then someone would have already done it and sold it in spades. Why would you need to pay people to demean themselves doing for real in front of cameras, when you can have digital animation engineers do it for you? In the comfort of their own bedrooms no less.
It's would be noteworthy, that the educational and free versions of RenderMan (the next release) isn't available yet.
As always, it'll be Real Soon Now.
It's also noteworthy (unless it's because I've never done any commercial grade graphics) that they don't have system requirements or anything even close to that. So if one just plans to "play with it" we have no idea if it's x86, IA64, ARM, iThingy (whichever variation) or a bloody Atari (or even a bank of them).
Is this an old report or am I missing something?
Far as I can tell, Wordpress is currently up to v3.9.1, and Wordpress SEO plugin is at v1.5something.
Both are miles away from the vulnerable v2.1.6 which was "patched overnight".
Have I lost it or is this in error? I need to know when to book myself into the Happy Hotel.
I've always said you don't learn by doing things right, you learn by doing things wrong. Where doing things wrong involves drastic consequences (like dying), you learn by doing things wrong in a controlled environment. The failure-is-not-an-option bullshit comes from the astronaughts losing in their simulators again and again, under different conditions. Their training is based entirely around losing. And when you've lost under every condition you could possibly think of, it only leaves winning on your average trip. Well, most of the time anyway...
I treat those-who-have-never-failed (and sell it) with suspicion, because if you only ever draw from your good luck bag, and never from your bad luck bag, sooner or later you're going to run out of good luck. At this point you're no different from anyone else - except - you have no idea how to deal with, cope and recover from that really long bad luck streak. The rest of us mere mortal humans are used to it, pull up our socks, pull our fingers out, and get on with it. And this is more important in the long run regardless what the fat suits think.
Or you can take the Mythbusters stance of "failure is aways an option"... 13+ seasons of getting it "wrong". They must be doing something right.
"If the image is of me and I am alone in that image I am the copyright owner."
That's nice, but that's not how the law works.
Historically, the person or entity who commissioned the photographic work became the owner.
That changed in the '40s? (forgive my ignorance I can't remember my photo history), where by default, unless otherwise specified, the photographer became the owner.
Fast forward to several years ago, when Facebook worked out how to screw everyone by default. Legally, the owner remains the owner, but Facebook now has the right to use and get paid for the owner's photo, and not paying the owner any commission. They can do this, because all the idiot owners signed off on it when they became members. Clearly they don't like reading fine print, or big black bold print either for that matter.
The lawyers at Facebook obviously spent a lot of time fine tuning their statements, clearly outlining, capitalising and bolding the fact the owner remains the owner - while "not stealing" everyone's photos from under their feet (because it's legal now).
Chen and Tien are going to learn bloody quickly, if you're going to steal from someone, at least make sure the law is on your side.
"So you graduated college - after paying for your education and probably owe maybe $200k - and the college wants you to pay for your graduation picture?"
It's a question of today's economics. It's not the college that's asking to pay for photos, it's a third party that got the contract to take the photos - even if they are operating in conjuction with the college.
At least they're not "forcing" you to buy them.
We had a fundraiser bicycle ride here some time back, and they had photographers snap everyone who passed the finish line. Ride rules dictacted that you must have your registered ride number bib somewhere clearly visible on the FRONT (their emphasis) of the bike. So what you say? Turns out the contracted photo people used the rider bib numbers to cross reference the owner from the registration lists, and posted all photos, along with an invoice. If you didn't want to pay for the photo, YOU had to post it back.
Some paid, some posted it back, most kept the photos hostage and ignored the payment nagging.
What changed drastically the following year, is only a very small percentage of riders complied with the forward facing bib numbers, effectively killing their sole source of income.
If you behave like an arsehole, people will respond in like.
I'm not saying this college and their photographers are like this, but when you're bombarded with "screw you we're getting our cut whether you like it or not", it's easy to understand reactions like this. Wondered why most people nowadays demand negatives of their wedding photos? What changed? 20 years later, if you don't hate your spouse yet, you might want more, but aren't willing to pay, or worse still, the photographer has gone out of business and doesn't have the negatives or photos anymore.
"People jump through hoops to avoid paying a dollar for a game on Android..."
Not only android, I remember from the BBS days, people would create keygens for software that was still fully functional except for a subtle occasional nag, or a "buy me" button somewhere on the main window.
Heck, I've seen hacked versions of "postcardware" software. (send me a postcard to be registered...)
"TrueCrypt had a quite functional, if not very eye-catching website, which has been replaced by a primitive HTML page that you can throw together in two minutes."
It's as if the developer-killed-himself-with-his-own-sword conspiracy theorists can't read. You've mentioned some of the more glaring points that clearly tell us perhaps some twat had nothing better to do on a sunday morning, got lucky with the server access, and cooked up a new version that doesn't work.
Bitlocker. Funny.
It happens all the time, all over the place. One example I cite frequently, is in the "Freakonomics" "what's in a name" chapter.
There is quite clear statistical difference in the performance of a child, and their name. So how does a name affect one's school exam scores? Easy, it doesn't. It doesn't make a squat of difference. The difference is in genetics, upbringing, and if the child was an accident or planned.
The most likely answer is because well educated parents have their kid later in life, where it was planned, will probably name their kid some sensible, ordinary, conservative name. On the other side of the street, the type of mother who names her kid "temptress" is probably on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale, had her kid at 16, and was too busy lighting farts instead of worrying about school exams. The name isn't the cause, it's the effect.
Yet, even today, parents are increasingly naming their brats ever-exotic names in the at least subconscious effort that it's going to make a difference.
Which brings me to my point (yeah I know it took a while): It's easy to assume the average plob doesn't know anything about statisics, but the people who analyse databases, come from the same group. They're at the same risk of mistaking cause and effect.
"It's called the telephone, and we'll be interested – nay, fascinated – to see if it catches on,"
"MR. WATSON—COME HERE—I WANT TO SEE YOU".
Rumour has it, that Watson did come, but only because he heard the shouting from the adjacent room. Turns out Bell hooked up his ADSL filter the wrong way around...
"If Oleg Pliss is the vanguard of such efforts, millions of people are in peril."
No, millions of plebs who can't be bothered coming up with reasonable or even DIFFERENT passwords are in peril. Or, worse still, if they're from the "I have nothing to hide" wanker brigade, perhaps now they'll learn they DO have something to hide after all. Or not. I just don't care anymore.
"The number of big BMWs I see in less affluent areas proves that earning big money is not required for BMW ownership."
I've seen this in some (primarily European) countries, but it doesn't apply here in Australia. You either need a bucketload of money to buy one, or, if it's a shitbox, you're paying a bucketload of money to keep it on the road. Either way, you're not getting away with it on the cheap. I'm thinking it's the import fees that try to encourage the purchase of Australian-Built cars (even though that industry is nearly dead now anyway), plus the local perception that a beemer = money.
"What happens when the original owner sells the car?"
The previous owner would need to reliquish the old password, then it would be smart if the new owner changed it.
However, if past experience is anything to go by, that's not going to happen. (as per the anti-theft four digit car radio code that disables the radio when removing the battery).
The new owner will have to go to a dealer, who then takes a form with suitable identification and VIN number, which then gets passed on to the factory who uses a lookup table for that radio's code, then passes that back to the dealer who gets in touch with the owner. Six years later, the ower has sold it to someone else and doesn't care anymore because he pulled out the factory radio and replaced it since then anyway.
This is the same, except the remote functionality is never used, and the car operates much in the same way as any other car. And this bit I learned the hard way: If you're sold a car, that is claimed it drives like any other car, the manufacturer is under no obligation to fix any other special features - because they don't stop it from being a "car".
"It comes with this thing called a "Key" which I keep on my person at all times. The car is remarkably hard to open or start without it."
Not really. If you're willing to limit the type of vehicle you wish to aquire, a half brick and a screwdriver will do nicely.
"I understand why it isn't good practice to use your own name as an account name, but it should be! I was given my name, I use my name all the time so why shouldn't I be able to use it for online services? Well, apart from it not being unique."
Being able to use "any" username, and "any" password, effectively gives you two factor authentication. Perhaps it wasn't intended that way, but the point "Pen Test Partners" makes is, if you can, then you should take advantage. If the username is forced to be in a particular format, you're effectively making it single factor authentication - which is inherently less secure.
That doesn't make it a bad thing, it just means you need a more securely designed password. And I'm not confident the drivers are smart enough to do that(*).
(*)The owners are probably smart and sensible people, it takes brains to make that class of money that buys this class of vehicle. However, around these parts, I've seen spouses who *drive* the cars on a day to day basis who are - dare I say it - not quite as smart and sensible. To them "4321" would be the pinnacle of secure.
I hear the hot spare parts market is booming - which would be a lead to stolen cars, even if they don't onsell the *car*, the parts more than make up for it. Heck, they're even doing smash and grabs for airbags on ordinary family cars...
Still, the BMW thing isn't nearly as bad as some security gaffs some other manufacturers have done.
"In its other filing, Apple asks for permanent sales bans on Samsung Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note II, various Galaxy S II variants, Galaxy S III and Stratosphere devices in the US."
It's as if Apple *wants* Samsung to sell more of their current and/or later gear. Do they even get how this works?
This is a GOOD day for the rule of law.
Or, more specifically, the lawyers who manage it. Class action suits are always great for the lawyers, and the collective payout seems quite nice - till you do the sums and find out it equates to about a couple of lunches for those who are being "paid out". Remember that payout contains the legal fees?
The company actually pays out the most using this method as it turns out, because if the employees sought individual suits, they *might* get more (on paper), but it never gets to that because most never bother, or their payout gets eaten up by the lawyers (see above - they always win). However, as you said, it equates to petty cash for the corporations anyway.
So, it's great for the lawyers and corporations, whoever is left can get screwed.
"Easier said than done, it seems bozo the clown was in charge of the design of their password change system and you can't paste in a new password...."
I could. In fact, I generated a new 20-character password with PWGen, and pasted that in.
I changed mine through the australian leg of eBay, so, they might be "lagging behind" compared to other parts of the world.
But your comment still stands, I've been in that position with other web sites, and left strongly worded comments about their practice. One replied stating that once a string is in the windows copy buffer, it is not only widely insecure, it's widely available to other software for the asking - actual keystrokes are not open to that. I said once a keylogger is in your system, it won't matter anymore.
Like you said, if you're dealing with bozo any hair-brained idea they get becomes gospel and no-one is to question it anymore.
"User ignorance is by far the largest problem. Linux users included."
Correct, but it doesn't matter anyway. There are idiot users everywhere.
Coverage doesn't matter either - if Linux had the coverage that windows does now, we would be saying it's safer if everyone moves to windows, ditto for MacOS.
Most scammers try to get the widest coverage by picking the OS that has the widest coverage - whoever that may be. So you're not actually helping by saying your choice of OS is proof against most of the attacks. It might be technically correct, but it doesn't actually help.
You may be able to help yourself, but you have control over your own equipment, it doesn't fix anything by whining that OS brand Whatever is terrible, if your employer uses it, or any of the shops you visit, or any of the public services use it, or your bank, or whoever.
"Japanese specialist fruit and vegetable growers already charge eye-watering prices for premium produce..."
Like the square watermelon. Not very popular, but it fits in your fridge neatly, and it costs lots more, so obviously must be better to the ones who have more money than sense.
"As they're controlling the source nutrients so closely they can affect the flavour. Bacon flavour lettuce anyone? I would."
I got shouted down for a similar situation when dealing with a worldwide market. Because this would be unsuitable for countries that follow the Muslim faith, the idea would be destined for a massive fail.
Send all your prototypes this way though. I want some!
But what about the rest of the country who *isn't* play beta tester? Those who are destined to remain on copper for the rest of time?
And this isn't always a good thing. I have a friend in Perth who has constant problems with his current copper on a regular basis. Talking to the Telstra techs, they tell him they're not going to do any extensive and expensive repairs (copper replacement) because the NBN is coming round any moment now, and there's no point in spending money on cabling system that's going to be demoted Real Soon Now.
Except it isn't. If you don't have fibre already, the odds you're going to get in in the future are real slim.
"I 'deleted' my FaceBook account a little over a year ago."
I used to have lots of friends. Then I got a Facebook account, and they all realised I was actually a dick. Now I have no friends.
Shortly after, I started getting new friends. New friends who were telling me how great their penis enlagement pills were.
I liked my first friends better...
It also confirms that things in China (and other countries) are still working how they were (WRT piracy).
Other operating systems like Linux (whichever flavour) haven't, are not and will not ever be popular - not because there's anything wrong with them, it's because they sit exactly alonside Windows when it comes to value and cost. With everything "free" (or pirated, whatever the case may be) Windows is going to win every time because it has a somewhat higher value (perceived or otherwise), that is, more worldwide popularity, as a development platform for a worldwide market, and it is better refined in some areas. Yes, yes, one could argue the point, but when push comes to shove, since the "cost" is the same (free), windows wins.
Their ban of 8/8.1 is very telling. They must hate it. They must really, really hate it.
Hey, I don't blame them, they get kudos for having the balls to tell it like it is.
I was given an ASUS Windows RT tablet for work, specifically because it has a "real" keyboard, not that touch garbage that's on the Surface. Apparently, my rants were not unheard after all... :-)
However, as the Surface 3 goes, since they're going with the intel i3/i5/i7 series, then the question that begs to be asked (again, as with other posts) "why not regular desktop Windows 7/8.1"?
I can do most of my work with the tablet, but I carry my own Atom based laptop anyway. Why? Because even though the tablet is a little lighter, a little smaller and has a little better battery life, my laptop with the expanded battery does *all* that I want and need, verses *most* with the tablet. The trade-offs are actually so close they're not really tradeoffs at all.
I don't like Microsoft's new stance on the closed market for RT applications, perhaps I've been spoiled, but aside from the software base that's massively larger, I have a substatial registered software collection under x86 windows, that's rended useless with RT. I don't like that bit at all.
For as long as there is financial incentive, there will be patent lawsuits. If you don't get them, they'll get you.
In the rarer cases where there would be equal liability both ways, is the only time I would see a "truce". With mutual costs being about the same, they *BOTH* have more to lose in legal fees fighting it out, rather than just giving up and leaving it be.
This is *purely* a financial move, don't think for a second they've magically become kinder.
"The one thing I didn't notice is what format does one store the media on the NAS."
Excellent question. I don't know. I suppose this is a very personal question that would envoke a strong emotive response, but either way, I picked AVI/xVid/MP3.
At the time, I had lots of tools that could work intimately with the format, and it was the only format that was universally accepted across all the devices I had, and that others brought over. The only place I noticed it didn't work was Apple gear. But I would imagine that a plugin, or a non-Apple media player software would fix that quickly enough.
Today, I would probably have a different answer. Not sure what that answer would be, but AVI isn't hurting me at all, or what I do, or how I do it, so there's no real incentive to change (yet?).
"The whole system is tied together with a Logitech Harmony universal remote - slightly awkward to program, but allows multiple device control without switching, so is much easier to use for technically inept family members."
True, but you'll be surprised how much people will learn when confronted with what they want. Besides, if you dumb it down too much, you lose flexibility.
My 8yo niece was resistant to even turning it on (one button), but warmed quickly when I said there was every Sabrina The Teenage Witch ever made in there somewhere. She found it pretty quickly after that. Even my brother in law who pretends to be entirely technically illiterate navigates around my 12,000+ video files. He's now progressed to asking questions I can't do, such as search based on actors (I don't have that data in there yet), which shows to me, either *everyone* is actually smarter than they admit, or I'm doing something right. Probably somewhere inbetween.
When I was looking for an 'electronic wallet', one of the key manditory features I was looking for, was local storage of the encrypted file. The key never leaves the phone, I'm the only one responsable for keeping it backed up, and backing it up is as easy as copying a file.
The cloud serves many places, this is not one of them.
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