Posts by Mark 85

Re: He's 'avin a giraffe

I find it amazing that in other high profile attacks (the ones that make the media), they can establish rather quickly ("quickly" for some value of governmentspeak) but when the government's house is broken into, they don't know. Is the government IT that bad? No logs? No intruder protection? Basically a wide open front door with no one giving a crap? This seems like bad policy, not politics, but incompetence of those in charge of IT (and not the individual department heads of say.. OPM). But then, we've seen a lot of bad policy made whereas in this case, any policy would have been better than none.

Re: Argies are too late

It's yours for free @Swarthy if you'll sing "Nimrod's Son" by the Pixies whilst I do a Kim Deal impression on the bass guitar.

And thus a startup is born.. and we are witness to it. I'm in awe of the power of the comments section.

This new "political correctness" for games, etc.is a bit scary. In the scale models arena, some guys have been beaten to a bloody pulp (verbally) for putting the swastika on German tanks, planes, and ships. and then when they remove it, another group will beat them verbally for not being historically accurate. I imagine this is about to spread into other areas for this flag. The big question is: who or what is next? Paintings in art museums?

BTW, it's good, IMO, that the flag is pulled from State capitols, etc...

Re: "in the context of"

You're thinking and acting with a sense of ethics and NOT profit. After 20 years, you could have been selling them updates (oh.. new and exciting releases... forgot my marketingspeak).

Re: Every inhabitant of Barsoom

Define "sane" and "normal"... I'm not familiar with those concepts around these parts.

Re: So, blackhats.

Well, first they have to find them. I'm guessing our agencies are so busy spying on us and each other's governments and populations that there's no time to seek out those particular crews.

Re: Crypto-What?

Sounds good. Right up until it's parked itself in the incremental to wait for it to be re-loaded. If the encryption has started, your incrementals are screwed. Unless you do the back up and pull it off line. The catch to beware of: did it or did it not put a copy of itself in the backup.... do you feel lucky?

Universal only to the States.... 999 is or was the prefix for Joliet in Illinois at the time. For along time, if you dialed 999 in Chicago, that number would dispatch a tow truck Might still be but I don't know for certain.

Apparently they had a heck of time sorting it out so it would be easy to remember and also didn't conflict with all the phone systems that were around at the time.. area codes and prefixes.

Re: "...there are persistent rumors that at least one former NSA staffer is also leaking files."

In many ways, I hope there isn't a second leaker for his sake or that he/she is now so far underground* that any of the 5-eyes won't be able to find him/her. All the wrath and frustration will be vented on the second one.

The question is, "is anyone surprised at this"? I wouldn't be surprised if every leader (including the US "leader" - for some value of leader) was being snooped by allies.

*Not dead but hiding.

Re: Sue them under the DMCA?

Ah.. I'm in the US. We can sue but fat chance the case will ever be heard. Given the way all the governments are acting.. bad assumption on my part. My bad and I'll go stand in the corner.

Re: Ve Haff Banned Talk Off Ze "cron jobs" Too

There's much there and after scrolling down the page, much that cannot be unread.... Anyone know where I can purchase brain bleach?

Re: Yay science

Patience Grasshopper... considering that it was launched almost 10 years ago, another month is a long wait at all. Got to think on the cosmic scale here.

Re: I must be the only software guy here

Did you forget the troll icon, maybe?

Re: I'm interested to know

How about this... I, for one, don't trust any individual government at this point in time. Since the UN is a multi-country thing, I trust them even less as they are more secretive and old-boy-club type of thing.

Who really gains from the UN and who supports it monetarily and with whatever they ask for....? Maybe that's the question that should be looked at?

And no.. no gun collection or cabin here. Occasional tinfoil though... <jk>

Re: Apple gets a Swift kick in the rear

Please, no, I beg of you. Do not ever sic a celeb on politics or politicians. Haven't you learned anything over the years? Sometimes they get carried away an become Governors and Presidents...

Re: Truer words were never spoken --- "EIT"

Why would they need an extradition request when they just use extraordinary rendition.. /facepalm

Don't be paranoid about this... It's logical they won't use "extraordinary rendition" to make him disappear. He's very high profile. If he disappeared, there would be too much probring from supporters/press/etc.

Re: 5 years to write it ...

And probably at least 3 more OPM break-ins for the "hackers" (hate that term) to update their files on US Government employees.

Re: Usual Apple greed

I dion't know how it works over on the right side of the pond, but here on the left, something like that is a 'loss leader". The store takes the hit but sells something else at a higher price and uses, shall we say, creative accounting for advertising expenses. They generate higher traffic and have more of those infamous impulse buys (especially if they bring their kids). The farmer/distributer still sells the carrots to the store at the same price.

Re: Something missing

Quotas are never a good thing. You don't get the best people for the job, just someone who matches the quota.

Have you ever been a victim of this discrimination? I have and it's not funny. There was a running joke back in the 70's here in States when they tried to implement racial quotas that the ideal candidate for any job was a black woman who was over 50 and a veteran of the Spanish-American War. No other qualifications needed.