Please don't call them engineers*, she'd have been a support agent at best. My standard MO when calling an ISP tech support is to give the support agent a pop quiz (eg. can you explain the difference between UDP & TCP), If they fail then there's no point in wasting my time, I won't get anywhere.
* I studied Aeronautical Engineering, and even I don't call myself an engineer, let alone these numpties.
Have you tried using Telnet on Vista or Win7? For some insane reason MS decided not to install it in the default distribution:
As time has passed, fewer users use telnet. Thus, to decrease the foot print as well as the attack surface, we decided to make it an optional component.
The server was never (as far as I can recall) enabled by default on Windows, and the client's footprint is fairly negligible compared to that of the OS. It also takes bloody ages to install for some reason, it's far quicker to download putty.exe on Vista/Win7 and use that instead. I now keep a USB drive on me containing Wireshark, Process Explorer, TCPView & PuTTY, so I can actually get things done
Yup, my Mum's a child psychologist, and it really annoys me when she comes out with "Bill Gates probably has aspergers", "so and so has aspergers", etc.
She didn't find it amusing when I described aspergers as "the new black": everybody who used to be described as socially awkward or eccentric now suffers from aspergers.
Psychologists appear to love labeling people, previously it was dyslexia, then ADHD, now aspergers. Not that I don't believe these conditions exist, just that the moment a condition has a name, everybody slightly different has it.
You still have to trust the host not to track you.
As an aside, what I *would* like to see is an attribute added to the tag which allows you to specify the IME for mobile devices. It's not to much to ask for is it?
I couldn't see the details, but unless he was served a page displaying all the data rather than looking at a URI and extrapolating it for other users, he's in the wrong.
If he extrapolated the scheme and ran a script to get all matches, then yes it is like trying every front door on a street to find it unlocked. Sure the server shouldn't have given him the data, but it sounds like he made an effort to get it, rather than tripping over all the information completely accidentally.
He'd have a system that gives him the VIN, make, model, variant, colour etc. The DVLA have cracked down on people reselling the data though, hence you don't see so many "text the reg number" services anymore. Bang went our chance to resell it in an Android app. Giving out the full VIN is a big no-no too, last 8 chars is ok to confirm it though. We have a similar system in the company I work for to confirm the vehicle we are underwriting. Ours also gives us the number of owners, transfer dates, whether it's been stolen as well. No mileage or finance info though. It's a pretty good service for 10p a hit. It's the same system that sites like webuyanycar or bestcarbuyer use. Not affiliated with either.
What we need is some kind of system where fines to the company are taken directly from the pay packets of the directors. It might make them actually give a shit about data security and force them to deal with these data breaches. If they get paid a handsome salary + bonus for the work carried out by those below them, surely they should carry the blame for mistakes made by those below them.
Obviously more often than you think: James Dyson, Trevor Baylis amongst others. What patents allow is for an inventor to protect his invention without the fear of a larger company taking his idea. They don't have to stifle innovation as they can be licensed.
How often does it happen that companies like GE & Co. sue the living hell out of a tiny new company that might turn into a competitor one day?
You've obviously completely missed my point, how can GE "sue the living hell out of a tiny new company" if that tiny company has taken a patent out on its invention?
I was simply responding to your comment that you "cannot picture a single situation where patents actually help the society.", which was a fairly sweeping statement. Just because patents can (and are) misused, it doesn't mean they have no place in society.
I cannot picture a single situation where software patents actually help the society. It benefits very few and punishes the majority. The product should matter, not a theoretical idea behind it.
FTFY
I see no problem with patents for products which require large amount of tooling for prototypes. They're there to allow you to invent a product, and stop others from copying it once you've spent large amounts of time and money getting it to work.
I'd be fairly pissed off if I came up with some fantastic new aero engine, spent of thousands of pounds on the tooling to build a prototype, get it working as expected, only for Rolls Royce or General Electric to copy it. What incentive would there be for me, even if it was for the greater good?
As a programmer, I can see no rationale behind software patents. Luckily the UK-IPO appears to reject software patents, though it seems the courts can force them to be accepted.
I've noticed that spam & dictionary attack are seasonal. Over Christmas I saw less than 20% of the usual attacks on our servers. I'm guessing this is due to peoples bot-ridden machines not being switched on as much.
What really gets me is the amount of of dating spam that gets sent to an account I use for FreeBSD porting & CPAN. One would think spammers would avoid certain domains as they're only used by techies. Then again, maybe we're so desperate we'll jump at any chance of talking to a bird.
I do exactly this for all non-banking sites. I use a 8 char alphanumeric password, I then take certain parts of the domain and prepend and append them to the password. As the base password is randomly generated, it's not obvious where the domain parts start and end.
I started doing this after my Yahoo account was hacked, I'm guessing because I used the same password for some random site was found (that'll learn me). This way it stops any automated tools using that password on every freemail account with my username. Odds are that a person (not including people that worked at Station X) would need a good few examples of my password to see the "algorithm" I use.
I've suggested that people do the same, but only after explaining why they shouldn't something simple like Password1 as their base password, and not to use the whole domain, but things like the 2nd vowel & 3rd consonant.
To be honest, I just called MS, told them XP wouldn't accept the serial and that I refused to use the OEM CD as it was rubbish. I explained I was using an XP Pro CD and that I had a license. I did get admonished for saying it was "bullshit" that I've paid for a license and they wouldn't allow me to use the OS I paid for. Apparently it's not professional to curse on a consumer helpline! It may have helped for me to say "fine, I'll use a pirated OEM number, as the sticker on the machine says I've a license". In short, if you're willing to waste some time, they'll provide an OEM license.
I'm going to have to reread this when I've had a little less wine in the evening so that I can see how it's done with less grief. However all I can say is, therein lies the problem: 4 paragraphs to describe installing and patching an OS to bring it up to spec. This is all well and good for business use, but this was my home laptop. Don't get me wrong, what you've said looks pretty helpful, it just winds me up that's it's so much hassle in the first place.
A description of what I did to install Ubuntu: Download ISO Download unetbootin Write ISO to usb stick Restart machine Install Linux Download patches & new kernels Restart Try to find best app to burn CDs Curse while tring to find best app to burn CDs
The last two steps were the most agro I had, as WMP really is a piece of piss to use to rip CDs, tag & retrieve album art (even if you take issue with MP3/WMA)
Well I thought I was running a properly configured box. Everything up to date, not using IE etc. Clicked on a link and got a Google warning about the sit. Fine I thought, I'll use the get me out of here button and suddenly I'm being bombarded by AV warnings. Noticed a Java console icon in the Systray, so that was how it arrived. What was unbelievable was that within seconds every HTML doc was infected with fucking vbscript. I gave up on windows for home use there and then and now use Linux full time (instead of occasionally), and just windows for.net stuff. As an aside, time to install Ubuntu, about 40 minutes. Time to install XP (from slipstreamed SP3 CD), half a fucking day including a call to India to ask for an OEM number that fucking worked. None of the driver bullshit either.
Slashdot Mirror
Please don't call them engineers*, she'd have been a support agent at best. My standard MO when calling an ISP tech support is to give the support agent a pop quiz (eg. can you explain the difference between UDP & TCP), If they fail then there's no point in wasting my time, I won't get anywhere.
* I studied Aeronautical Engineering, and even I don't call myself an engineer, let alone these numpties.
Thanks for posting that link. The first paragraph had me going. Reading the comments is even better than the article though.
I decided to try this just in case somebody in Google was having a laugh. Pity.
Have you tried using Telnet on Vista or Win7? For some insane reason MS decided not to install it in the default distribution:
As time has passed, fewer users use telnet. Thus, to decrease the foot print as well as the attack surface, we decided to make it an optional component.
The server was never (as far as I can recall) enabled by default on Windows, and the client's footprint is fairly negligible compared to that of the OS. It also takes bloody ages to install for some reason, it's far quicker to download putty.exe on Vista/Win7 and use that instead.
I now keep a USB drive on me containing Wireshark, Process Explorer, TCPView & PuTTY, so I can actually get things done
Yup, my Mum's a child psychologist, and it really annoys me when she comes out with "Bill Gates probably has aspergers", "so and so has aspergers", etc.
She didn't find it amusing when I described aspergers as "the new black": everybody who used to be described as socially awkward or eccentric now suffers from aspergers.
Psychologists appear to love labeling people, previously it was dyslexia, then ADHD, now aspergers. Not that I don't believe these conditions exist, just that the moment a condition has a name, everybody slightly different has it.
You still have to trust the host not to track you.
As an aside, what I *would* like to see is an attribute added to the tag which allows you to specify the IME for mobile devices. It's not to much to ask for is it?
I thought it will be released on the 32nd of March.
I couldn't see the details, but unless he was served a page displaying all the data rather than looking at a URI and extrapolating it for other users, he's in the wrong.
If he extrapolated the scheme and ran a script to get all matches, then yes it is like trying every front door on a street to find it unlocked. Sure the server shouldn't have given him the data, but it sounds like he made an effort to get it, rather than tripping over all the information completely accidentally.
He'd have a system that gives him the VIN, make, model, variant, colour etc. The DVLA have cracked down on people reselling the data though, hence you don't see so many "text the reg number" services anymore. Bang went our chance to resell it in an Android app. Giving out the full VIN is a big no-no too, last 8 chars is ok to confirm it though.
We have a similar system in the company I work for to confirm the vehicle we are underwriting. Ours also gives us the number of owners, transfer dates, whether it's been stolen as well. No mileage or finance info though. It's a pretty good service for 10p a hit.
It's the same system that sites like webuyanycar or bestcarbuyer use. Not affiliated with either.
What we need is some kind of system where fines to the company are taken directly from the pay packets of the directors.
It might make them actually give a shit about data security and force them to deal with these data breaches.
If they get paid a handsome salary + bonus for the work carried out by those below them, surely they should carry the blame for mistakes made by those below them.
I think there's a town in North Wales called that.
Yup, I had to search to see what it looked like, seeing as the highly informative video insisted on showing a Predator (I think) drone.
I suppose the Predator looked a lot better than something that looks like an RC toy.
But how are you going to play FarmVille & FrontierVille with the phone off?
Disclaimer: I've farmed in real life, and I really couldn't be bothered with doing it in a game.
I've been using ConnectBot since I got my N1. It's a great application.
How often do things like your example happen?
Obviously more often than you think: James Dyson, Trevor Baylis amongst others. What patents allow is for an inventor to protect his invention without the fear of a larger company taking his idea. They don't have to stifle innovation as they can be licensed.
How often does it happen that companies like GE & Co. sue the living hell out of a tiny new company that might turn into a competitor one day?
You've obviously completely missed my point, how can GE "sue the living hell out of a tiny new company" if that tiny company has taken a patent out on its invention?
I was simply responding to your comment that you "cannot picture a single situation where patents actually help the society.", which was a fairly sweeping statement. Just because patents can (and are) misused, it doesn't mean they have no place in society.
I cannot picture a single situation where software patents actually help the society. It benefits very few and punishes the majority. The product should matter, not a theoretical idea behind it.
FTFY
I see no problem with patents for products which require large amount of tooling for prototypes. They're there to allow you to invent a product, and stop others from copying it once you've spent large amounts of time and money getting it to work.
I'd be fairly pissed off if I came up with some fantastic new aero engine, spent of thousands of pounds on the tooling to build a prototype, get it working as expected, only for Rolls Royce or General Electric to copy it. What incentive would there be for me, even if it was for the greater good?
As a programmer, I can see no rationale behind software patents. Luckily the UK-IPO appears to reject software patents, though it seems the courts can force them to be accepted.
Oh come on. Nowadays they really should be using six of them.
I've noticed that spam & dictionary attack are seasonal. Over Christmas I saw less than 20% of the usual attacks on our servers. I'm guessing this is due to peoples bot-ridden machines not being switched on as much.
What really gets me is the amount of of dating spam that gets sent to an account I use for FreeBSD porting & CPAN. One would think spammers would avoid certain domains as they're only used by techies. Then again, maybe we're so desperate we'll jump at any chance of talking to a bird.
This has to be the most sound reasoning I have seen regarding 419 scams that I have seen. Why post AC?
I do exactly this for all non-banking sites.
I use a 8 char alphanumeric password, I then take certain parts of the domain and prepend and append them to the password.
As the base password is randomly generated, it's not obvious where the domain parts start and end.
I started doing this after my Yahoo account was hacked, I'm guessing because I used the same password for some random site was found (that'll learn me). This way it stops any automated tools using that password on every freemail account with my username. Odds are that a person (not including people that worked at Station X) would need a good few examples of my password to see the "algorithm" I use.
I've suggested that people do the same, but only after explaining why they shouldn't something simple like Password1 as their base password, and not to use the whole domain, but things like the 2nd vowel & 3rd consonant.
To be honest, I just called MS, told them XP wouldn't accept the serial and that I refused to use the OEM CD as it was rubbish. I explained I was using an XP Pro CD and that I had a license. I did get admonished for saying it was "bullshit" that I've paid for a license and they wouldn't allow me to use the OS I paid for. Apparently it's not professional to curse on a consumer helpline!
It may have helped for me to say "fine, I'll use a pirated OEM number, as the sticker on the machine says I've a license".
In short, if you're willing to waste some time, they'll provide an OEM license.
I'm going to have to reread this when I've had a little less wine in the evening so that I can see how it's done with less grief.
However all I can say is, therein lies the problem: 4 paragraphs to describe installing and patching an OS to bring it up to spec. This is all well and good for business use, but this was my home laptop.
Don't get me wrong, what you've said looks pretty helpful, it just winds me up that's it's so much hassle in the first place.
A description of what I did to install Ubuntu:
Download ISO
Download unetbootin
Write ISO to usb stick
Restart machine
Install Linux
Download patches & new kernels
Restart
Try to find best app to burn CDs
Curse while tring to find best app to burn CDs
The last two steps were the most agro I had, as WMP really is a piece of piss to use to rip CDs, tag & retrieve album art (even if you take issue with MP3/WMA)
Is it bad etiquette to woosh a reply to one's own comment?
Well I thought I was running a properly configured box. Everything up to date, not using IE etc. Clicked on a link and got a Google warning about the sit. Fine I thought, I'll use the get me out of here button and suddenly I'm being bombarded by AV warnings. Noticed a Java console icon in the Systray, so that was how it arrived. What was unbelievable was that within seconds every HTML doc was infected with fucking vbscript. .net stuff.
I gave up on windows for home use there and then and now use Linux full time (instead of occasionally), and just windows for
As an aside, time to install Ubuntu, about 40 minutes. Time to install XP (from slipstreamed SP3 CD), half a fucking day including a call to India to ask for an OEM number that fucking worked. None of the driver bullshit either.
Now we need a full size one
Sure, but what about all the extra drag a really big solar sail will have?