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Fakes, Coming to a Store Near You
fishdan writes to tell us that while most Slashdotters have their own trusted sources for gear there is a growing concern that all consumers should look out for. According to PC World, more and more counterfeit hardware is coming to market each year. From the article: '...batteries aren't the only tech item that counterfeiters love. In October 2004, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Anchorage, Alaska, seized 20,000 suspected fake Memorex USB memory key thumb drives from Asia. And last year, Miami officials seized 900 allegedly phony laptops valued at $700,000. "Maybe it's a laptop, an MP3 player, or a component like a DVD drive--anything in the digital world can be counterfeited," says Therese Randazzo, a U.S. Customs Service counterfeiting expert.'"
"Maybe it's a laptop, an MP3 player, or a component like a DVD drive--anything in the digital world can be counterfeited," says Therese Randazzo, a U.S. Customs Service counterfeiting expert.'"
Last time I checked there captain obvious anything in the analog world can be counterfeited as well. Basically anything can be counterfeited. If this guy counts as an expert I'd hate to see a n00b.
Yeah "fakes" can work. In a way the PC your sitting behind right now is a "fake". Unless your a rich bastard sitting behind a IBM or Apple machine.
This article is however not about those kind of fakes. It is where the buyer presumes he is buying the real deal often for the real price. That is not good.
Same with software, you can hold a lengthy argument about software piracy but when I pay full price for a software package I would expect to get a real offical copy.
By all means, make cheap memory or hd or mp3 players but don't try to pass it of as a superior product and charge the same money.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Nope, that is the Windows Genuine Advantage.
There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
I think counterfeit hardware could be the next stage in trojans and viruses.
For instance, imagine you buy a wireless router from ebay, which the seller has pre-installed with trojan firmware and comes with a packet sniffer, bulk mailing software pre-installed, ftp server, password grabber etc. The best part is, most people trust their routers implicitly so don't bother checking them from the outside world. Some people then disable their software firewalls once they have a router available.
Another great idea would be a network printer with a trojan payload.
I agree. It is a problem. When the handle on the Louis Vuitton bag breaks, you can lose way more than a cell phone. Maybe your digital camera, video camera, and $2000 laptop all dies.
:)
There is a reason to buy quality, and to be aware that a brand name does not necessarily mean quality.
In Denmark we had a case. A supermarket was selling "counterfeit" Puma shoes. The only difference between the cheap Puma and the full price Puma was, that the manufacturer had lost his Puma contract, but was still producing the same shoes.
Go for quality rather than brand names.
The best color you can buy is usually last year's
Any chinese company can build this kind of product, as the related technologies (and component prices) can be complex as manufacturing an ADSL modem.
But that's Cisco TODAY. Back in The Day when the components and technologies necessary to build a T1 signal interface were really expensive, their prices at least made some sense. Today the amount of signal processing necessary for a full-featured ADSL modem is larger than for this kind of communications card.
Today's Cisco is just a seller of overpriced commodity hardware.
Where are many critical electronic parts for computers, automobiles, military weapontry, and other important devices for America manufactured? The simple answer is the "Peoples Republic" of China. How many of these devices have "trojans" or sabatage circuitry embedded in intergrated circuits themselves? We may never find out (Hopefully). I can picture the day when the world grows tired of accepting worthless paper (dollars or Federal Reserve Notes) as "payment" for tangible goods. I can also picture the day that the "People's Republic" of China decides to annex Tiawan by force. All they have to do is wait for or cause a certain condition to occur, such as a specific date, or a certain code to pass over wires, or even a specific signal to be transitted. The "trojan" circuitry picks up the signal and disables the device. A couple of lines of code or a few transistors can throw a real monky wrentch into the functionality of a device. How could the U.S. stop the invasion of Taiwan when its electronic infrastructure has been disabled? I'm sure that the U.S. government has investigated this option when it permitted American telephone equipment manufacturers to export equipment to Eastern Bloc countries before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now, the tables are turned, and America depends on foriegn counties and companies for its electronic infrastructure.