Slashback: Stapler, Interface, Gaming

Slashback tonight (read on below) has updates on next-generation aircraft, KDE user-interface improvements and suggestions, a special warning for those obsessed with Milton's stapler from Office Space, SmartFilter's attitude toward SourceForge, and more.

You've got to admit it's getting better all the time. Gentu writes: "In parallel to the KDE 3.1-alpha release today, OSNews published an interesting article discussing a number of User Interface issues found on KDE 3. The article suggests a number of changes, some small, some pretty drastic. Towards the end of the two-part article, the author discusses the 'integration' problem found in today's X11 desktop environments, and how fixing this issue would bring Unix closer to average Joe's desktop."

Yes, you're allowed to have more than one friend. A NuKeFaN writes: "Following the article titled Are you a Friend of GNOME I wanted to point you out that the most used GPL'd software for the Web, PHP-Nuke, also has a similar page/system for their friends. It's a Club (MandrakeClub like) where you can be a member for a little monthly fee and you can get some extra benefits. You can access the Club area to know more about it. This can be, maybe, another example of how to get some money to fund a free software project, the matter is if we, as users, will support those project's developers this way? I think we can."

Wait, the scam was to take just a few pennies from everyone! MrBlue VT writes "In reference to the previous Slashdot article about the red Swingline Staplers, I click on the add to cart button on the Swingline website, and it pops open an ordering window with a 4 staplers added to the shopping cart. Ok, I think it's a little strange, but change the quantity back to 1, and hit continue to checkout. Next thing I know, I'm looking at an order form with all the text boxes filled out with somebody else's personal information. He's from Bellvue, WA apparently (I'm in Virginia). It also has his credit card number and expiration date!

This has to be the worst security I've ever seen in an online shopping site. The company who apparently provides the online shopping service for Swingline appears to be an outfit called SureSource.

I just wanted to let anyone who happened to order from them know about this. Your credit card info could very well be compromised."

Please fasten your belts. hondo77 submitted this follow-up to this article about next-generation aircraft, writing "Boeing says that their blended-wing aircraft will be ready for test flights in 2006. The article also has a picture of a 3% scale model. See, it doesn't look like the B-2 at all."

But thanks anyhow. flonker writes "Smartfilter no longer lists sourceforge.net! Link for those who want to see for themselves."

Great at stealing them, too. MrDingusMcGee writes "After the recent posting about a study suggesting that video games decrease brain activity, I thought it would be interesting to read the results of another study which has shown that video game players score better on a range of attention tasks (mirror here)done by Shawn Green at the University of Rochester Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, and that this could possibly rate video game players as better drivers. Worth seeing the other side of the argument and having some validation for those hours of gaming."

Comments

Staplers

[Anonymous Coward]

You did order the man 4 staplers, right? And then another 4? And then 4 more, just to be nice?

Re:Staplers

[unicron]

I..I um, I um..I believe you have my credit card.

Re:Staplers

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, the Swingline website was down this morning. And no, it was not Slashdotted -- it was Wall Street Journaled. (Really, you people amaze me. Any international news website gets more hits in an hour than Slashdot gets in a day. Consequently, the potential for a real news site to DOS a website is incredible. Slashdot is not a big deal to anyone who isn't a Linux-loser FUDdite.) Swingline's bandwidth was hosed and they put up a "we are fixing a technical problem" message for a few hours.

When the site finally came back up, tens of thousands of Office Space fans rushed in, wanting they're very own 'tapler.

Unfortunately, SureSource -- the unprofessional cockgobblers whom Swingline unfortunately chose as their e-commerice parter -- are apparently a bunch of amateurs. Either they were running a blatantly broken web application, or they never did any load testing. Either way, their shopping cart got confused and lost track of which cookies belonged to which sessions. Consequently, when User A tried to add a red Swingline to his shopping cart, he may have been adding it to User B's shopping cart. So, when User B went to check out, he might have seen several more staplers in his shopping cart than he expected to see. User B would then try to go back and delete the extra staplers, but in fact was deleting staplers from User C's cart. And because SureSource stores the user's already-entered personal data in the session, User C might see User B's name, address, phone number, and email address prepopulating the address form when he goes to check out.

That, my friends, is a problem. But the really big fucking problem is that SureSource were storing already-entered credit-card information somewhere in the session, too. There's a chance that anyone who tried to check out saw anyone else's credit card data.

I know this because I, very happy to finally be ordering the stapler after several hours of Swingline's downtime, attempted to fix my shopping cart several times before coming to the conclusion that SureSource are a bunch of fucktards. I was not very happy when, several hours later, I received several warning emails from some kind souls who happened to see my contact information and credit card info. I also received several phone calls.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who emailed or phoned any person whose personal data they saw to warn them. For some of you, those were long distance phone calls. We are very, very grateful.

Swingline heard about the fiasco pretty quick, and pulled the SureSource shopping cart link from their website. They've added a SureSource telephone number that you can call to order instead. Ha! In order for their telephone operators to fuck up as badly as they're "web developers" did, they would have to answer the phone by saying, "Hello, this is SureSource, would you like several people's credit card and billing information free of charge?"

The bottom line is that SureSource are unprofessional scum. I have never seen such maliciously broken software on the Web in years, and I hope that they get their dumb asses shut down by the Better Business Bureau. Hey, guys! If you're a bunch of lightweights, don't take contracts from companies with real volume!

Swingline, I hope, will drop SureSource by the end of the week. You, reader, can expedite that. Please, don't call SureSource and order a 'tapler. Instead, contact Swingline and tell them that you will not purchase a stapler until they find a different e-commerce partner. As it is, Swingline is a party to what is one of the most potentially damaging credit card problems I've seen on the Web. I'm not bullshitting you. The Wall Street Journal has a large userbase, and that link propagated to sites like Slashdot well before the morning was over. Think about how many people have seen that page. Think about how many have ordered. And think about the fact that for every person kindhearted enough to warn his fellow man to watch his credit card statement, there is probably another person evil enough to cut'n'paste the data into a text file. SureSource gave those people my name, billing address, email address, phone number, credit card number, credit card type, and expiration date. If that isn't enough to pull of some heinous identity theft, I don't know what is.

And if you don't boycott Swingline for others' sake, do it for your own sake. If SureSource is unprofessional enough to use untested software on an e-commerce site -- and believe me, that's the kind of shit that QA folks find pretty quick -- then who's to say that their internal credit card databases aren't just as easily compromised?

Even Milton, my friends, didn't need his 'tapler that bad.

Thank you for your time.

Staplers Now Off-Line

[Myriad]

I just checked the Swingline website and it looks like the on-line order button has been removed and replaced with:

To place an order for the Rio Red Stapler (SKU#: S7074740), Please call SureSource at: 1-800-544-3243.

Re:Staplers Now Off-Line

[douglas jeffries]

it appears they just commented out the html. seems like a quick hack, but who views source anyway?

<!--<a href="#"onClick="javascript:popUp2('http://www.acc o-store.com/cgi-bin/sgic0101.exe?HKW=CO01DIV01+COD IV=0101+QTY=1+UID=1613471026418266609+ITN=S7074740 ')"><img border="0" src="/images/sw/sw-add-to-cart.gif" alt="Buy from SureSource"></a>-->

fax-something-unique-to-8889771577 ?

[cperciva]

Can someone explain where the fax-something-unique-to-8889771577 bit comes in? I can't see any connection to any of the stories.

Re:fax-something-unique-to-8889771577 ?

[peterdaly]

They will hate me for putting this idea into people's minds...but everyone I explain this to gets a kick out of it, so here goes.

1. Take 5 sheets of black construction paper.
2. Scotch tape them into a single 5 sheet long sheet.
3. Place start of "page" into fax machine.
4. Dial the "recipient".
5. Watch sheet start going into the fax machine with glee.
6. Once out the other side, Scotch Tape beginning of "sheet" to end of sheet forming a giant black loop.
7. Giggle like a teenage girl and show your co-workers. Trust me, the showing co-workers step is needed for the full satisfaction. Choose co-workers carefully.
8. You Are Done! Not only that, but the recipient is now out of ink or toner.

Not that I have ever done this...but I know someone who has done this to someone who kept sending them spam faxes.

I hold no responsibility for your actions yada yada...

-Pete
BTW - comment posting is screwed.

Re:fax-something-unique-to-8889771577 ?

[Russ Steffen]

Unless your "victim" has something more sophisticated than a fax machine, like say a PC with a fax modem or a fax server. In that case you're just tying up a phone line.

And, why bother with the construction paper? Just a FAX modem, an all-black TIFF file and some know-how and you can do the same job in a much more reliable way (the tape seams tend to fray and split after 15 or so passses). And, it'll be more impressive to your cow-orkers.

Shopping Cart

[jfroot]

These kind of errors are usually caused by the shopping cart using your IP address to identify your session. If you and someone else are both shopping on the site and are going through the same proxy, you will see each others cart.

Re:Grand Theft Auto III

[Kenja]

I have never lurked around dark tunnels running from ghosts and eating pills I find on the ground. I have never had the urge to strut up and down the street making Boop Boop noises. I have never felt the need to grab a BFG and go hunting demons. Video games have yet to affect my real life at all (other then reducing the amount of time I spend there). If you don't want your kids to play these games don't let them. Do not turn to society as a whole to police what your kids can do.

Always hated the "About" menu item

[FattMattP]

There's one thing about pretty much every GUI program that I really hate. It's the About menu item. It never tells me about the program. It just tells me who wrote it and what the copyright is. That sort of stuff should be moved into a Credits menu item and the About menu item should devote a few sentences to telling me what the program does.

I ran into this problem a lot when I first started using both GNOME and KDE. I had no idea what half the programs did and there was no clue within the program itself. After a while it became too much of a drag to go find the docs just to read a one paragraph summary of what a given program was. I would hope that in the future developers would start putting a small description of their program within the About menu item.

Do your civic duty!

[Kredal]

Click here and change the category from "none" to "criminal skills". Don't let your children (or cow-orkers) visit a criminal orgainization!

Re:Do your civic duty!

[VRisaMetaphor]

Damn cow-orkers can visit goatse for all I care! If I ever catch them orking my cows again, I will shoot them, I swear.

Re:Do your civic duty!

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

OK, so I can classify www.microsoft.com, but what category?

Cults/Occult
The cult of Bill is strong in this one my master.
Criminal Skills
Microsoft has stolen more of my time than you will ever believe.
Drugs
Many things from there seem to be designed with the aid of drugs
Entertainment
Ha! IE crashed again and took out my shell, FUNNY!!!!
Extreme
Prices, yes.
Gambling
20-1 Blue Screen of death on next restart...
Hate Speech
Read the opinions on Sun, or Linux, or MacOS, or Java, or...
Humor
"We only do things to help our customers, we like innovating, not squelching competition".. Hilarious
Investing
I Invest too much time in MS crap.
Job Search
Can i find a job that doesn't require Exchange and Outlook on the desktop?
MP3
After the new MS patch erases all of yours, you'll be looking for more.
Mature
I'll grow old before this works
Nude
YIKES! A bunch of large gutted psty faced, large gutted engineers, I'd rather look at goatse.cx
Politics/Religion
Billy has bought a bunch of politicians, and it the cult of MS certainly is a religion.
Self Help
They sure ain't helping ya.
Sports
Monitor chucking? Or shotgun blasts (keeping with the Office Space theme)
Travel
"Calgon, take me away!!!!

No trolls were harmed in the making of this message.

Re:Grand Theft Auto III

[NanoGator]

Heh. I have been playing GTA3 (way too much actually) for the last week. Let me tell you something, I about died laughing when I managed to run over a person with a boat. (That was a sight to see!) Just for giggles, I like to run around and wallop people with a bat. Sometimes, I take the sniper rifle and blow people's heads off for no real reason other than it's fun to watch. Sometimes I instigate car chases with the cops just for the thrill of seeing how many I can take out before they take me out.

So I'm somebody that's more likely to go commit a crime, right? Wrong. GTA 3 is a hell of a lot of fun to play, but let me tell you something: That game taught me that the last thing I want to do is play games with cops.

The thought of ramming a cop car and seeing how far he and his buddies will chase me scares the shit out of me. Why? Because even in a game where my car can put up with a good deal more abuse than my real car can, I can't get away from the cops. The only real chance I have of getting away involves luck. That's it, luck. They will get me.

If anything, I think GTA 3 will reduce hoodlumism. Why? Because the physics in the game are a little different than they are in real life. For example: You can mow down a stoplight and still keep tooling along at 90 mph. In real life, striking a stoplight would end the chase rather suddenly.

Things happen much faster on GTA than they would in real life. Cars acellerate faster, and you can keep the chase going much longer than you possibly could in real life. And geez, there's no way you're going to acquire grenades to lob at people. GTA 3 really spoils reality for people. It's a lot more fun to destroy stuff in GTA 3 than it could possibly be in real life.

Newton's 3rd Law of Studies

[prockcore]

For every study, there is an equal and opposite study.

As found on Google:

[datastew]

Its a fax number for a printer-supplies co. that spammed someone named jeffrey back in Feb. 2002.
The google search

The top google link

Jeffrey's notes on spammers that he has toll-free numbers listed for.

You're right, I still don't see the connection. Maybe timothy is trying for a fax slashdotting.

But they already do...

[marm]

I would hope that in the future developers would start putting a small description of their program within the About menu item.

Ummm, have you actually used KDE or are you simply pontificating pointlessly?

Open Konqueror. Go to Help->About Konqueror. In the about box that pops up, on the default 'About' tab, it says: 'Web browser, file manager, ...' which sums up pretty well what Konq does.

Similarly, in the same place in KMail: 'The KDE Email client'.

Or in Kate: 'Kate - KDE Advanced Text Editor'.

Or in KSirc: 'KDE Irc Client'.

Or in Konsole: 'X terminal for use with KDE.'

Pretty much every KDE program has exactly this. You get the about dialog for free when you use the KDE framework, and all the developer has to do is fill in a few blanks.

Not to mention, of course, that the app gets a description in the K Menu as well - for instance, KMail's entry looks like:
KMail (Mail Client)

Perhaps GNOME doesn't do these things, I can't tell you (I haven't had GNOME 1.4 installed for about a year and GNOME 2.0 was installed for a total of about an hour whilst I checked it out and decided I didn't like it) but as far as KDE is concerned, you're dead wrong.

While Your're generous

[asv108]

Can you please donate to my charity.

Yeah, no murders ever before video games.

[Blaede]

I wish we could go back to era before Pong came out. No one ever murdered anyone. Drugs, crime, nothing like that ever existed. It was Utopia. Then that dreaded Pong arrived. Damn you, Nolan Bushnell!

Re:Grand Theft Auto III

[Telecommando]

Yeah!

We need to stop letting our kids play these unrealistic, mind warping games. None of that escapism stuff for us, no sirree.

What we need are REALISTIC games! Games that teach kids a thing or two. Games like these:

"Looking for a Parking Space" Where you drive endlessly around and around the parking lot looking for a space only to have the stores close before you can get there.

Or how about "Traffic Jam"? Sit behind the wheel, inching forward at a snail's pace while watching your engine temperature rise. Will you make it home before the engine overheats? Wheel gripping inaction!

Or you could always play "Road Construction Ahead". Try to pick the correct lane to be in only to have it suddenly come to a halt once you get into it. Grit your teeth as idiots try to squeese in ahead of you. It's frustration for the whole family!

If those sound too exciting for you there's always,

"Balancing Your Checkbook" Spend endless hours trying to read scrawled figures and cryptic bank statements in an attempt to see if there's still enough money left at the end of the month for pizza, or will it be ramen again tonight?

Now those are some happening games, man!

Excuse me, I gotta get coding. I'm gonna be RICH!

Re:Grand Theft Auto III

[macdaddy]

The game isn't to blame. The parents of those 4 13 year olds are to blame. Do you want to prohibit rated R movies too because some damned parent is too lazy to keep tabs on their kids. Why don't we outlaw alcohol and cigarettes because some 16 year old junkie is working behind the counter a your local 7-11 and is selling kids the goods without checking their IDs? Might as well. Oh, and lets outlaw automobiles too because some minor stole a car and drove it into a tree. Might as well. You seem to think that parents aren't responsible for their kids. You're wrong there. That's why they are call "adults". That's why they are called "Mom" and "Dad". They are responsible for their children's actions because they are adults and know better.

I hope you never have children.

viewing source is dangerous to your mental health

[Erris]

I'm just dying at this silly page, where the sure source dopes think people want to steal their "photos and art". Who realy wants to publish pictures of Todd, or the cubes he commands or of their building?!

Have some respect, now, and don't be a pirate for the mighty security firm might come get you. Tee-heee! Oh wait, I'm not a news organization and I don't have their permision to download, or did I because they sent it to me when I requested without asking who I was? Did I violate their silly text telling me that the pictures are " for exclusive use by members of the news media. These items may not be downloaded or reproduced by other individuals or organizations without the express permission of SureSource."? Or did they realy mean that I should, "Please click on the desired image to enlarge & download." Don't forget to check out the purple warehouse here, a DEEEEEEEEEEEP DEVILISH LINK. Please click to enlarge! Please click to Download! Wheeee! Wizards of Web! Untitled Document Creators? What awsome d000ds they are! Function MM_JumpMenu seems to come from Dreamweaver, but I doubt that firm wants to take credit. Note, when making simple static pages use a text editor or something simple like Bluefish. When you want to make complicated Flash stuff, please don't. When you use a big giant flash making editor to design simple static pages, sigh, I give up. It was funny at first but the more I look into it the dumber it gets. I'm embarased for them.

PHPNuke and GPL Issues

[crisco]

Why contribute to PHPNuke when only a year ago they were considering abandoning the GPL because of petty personal differences.

Why not support PostNuke, a fork of PHPNuke that has a much better attitude toward open source development and security.