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User: sharkey

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Comments · 5,331

  1. Re:Wet Cement on The Worst Foods to Eat Over a Keyboard · · Score: 1

    All this computer hacking is making me thirsty. I think I'll order a TAB.

  2. Re:Go on My Sun..... on Ballmer and McNealy Smiling Together · · Score: 1

    Sun - The Dot-Cornhole company!

  3. Re:New focus now that Cold War is over on The Feasibility of Star Wars Tech · · Score: 1
    The Star Wars program really is now needed for threats like N. Korea, rogue terrorists states, and the like.

    Mere babes compared to the real threat: Lost pilots in single engine planes.

  4. ObStewie on Due Next Year: Dell's 19-inch Laptop · · Score: 1

    I was going to watch the movie, but now for the next five hours, you're my bitch!

  5. ObFamilyGuy on OSS Projects Offer Bounties For Features · · Score: 2, Funny
    The quicker picker-upper?

    I just dumped this cup of warm yellow liquid on the counter...

  6. Re:Magneto on Gates Releases Details on New Mobile OS · · Score: 1
    naming their operating systems after their users' first reactions.

    And the OS theme songs, too- "You make a grown man cry!"

  7. Re:Only works on the Lexus, not the Prius on Testing Out Cell-Phone Viruses on a Prius · · Score: 1
    Hmmm, maybe the Matrix is happening ...

    No, they said it was a Prius, not a Matrix.

  8. Re:Mars...been there, done that on Mars Express' 2nd Boom Deployment Postponed · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but this Mars is red, not pitch black.

  9. Re:According to Ivanova on Mars Express' 2nd Boom Deployment Postponed · · Score: 1

    Tomorrow
    Tomorrow
    I love ya
    Tomorrow
    You're only a
    daaayyyy
    awaaayyyy!

  10. Re:Related Article on How to Cool Your PC with Dry Ice · · Score: 2, Funny

    How does strapping a Neon to it make a Civic go faster?

  11. Re:wtf is a really bad error? on Longhorn: Fewer BSODs, More RSODs · · Score: 1
    What exactly is a really bad error?

    Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

  12. Re:Device Driver Support if you're running Linux on Simple, Bare-Bones Motherboards? · · Score: 1
    If you're running Windows, the integrated on-board stuff will work fine, and as another poster says, you could use the built-in graphics to run a second monitor, which you'll find very addictive.

    If the board allows you to do so (AOpen, I'm looking at YOU). Check before buying, if this is a feature you want.

  13. Re:Funnyfox on Firefox 1.1 Boasts New Features · · Score: 1

    Sure. It'll help ease the PHBs transition if they think it will behave like IE.

  14. Re:With that much cornstarch... on Slashback: VoIPersecution, Israel, Plug-in · · Score: 1

    It's good for keepin' down the urges!
    --Ned Flanders

  15. Arm jokes... on Searching by Image Instead of Keywords · · Score: 2, Funny

    and set for goatse!

  16. Re:Why does everyone HAVE to flame lucas? on Revenge of the Sith a "Blood Bath" · · Score: 1

    Why? This is why.

  17. Re:So long as... on Revenge of the Sith a "Blood Bath" · · Score: 1

    That's WAY too fast. How about moderately fast decompression so he swells up like in Total Recall, and thus suffers longer?

  18. Re:Itsa beesa trap! on Revenge of the Sith a "Blood Bath" · · Score: 1
    a young Ensign Ackbar holds up a sign reading "9.8".

    Which is Calamarian for "John 3:16".

  19. Re:Meesa no tink so! on Revenge of the Sith a "Blood Bath" · · Score: 1
    ...possibility that Mace Windu is gay.

    It's also rumored that Viggo Mortensen will be making a cameo appearance as Jedi Master Strider, complete with manly stubble.

  20. ObBartMcCallister on Taking on an Online Extortionist · · Score: 1
    What are you going to do then, mister rent-an-adminCop?

    Tell him to drop it, and if he resists, shoot the little bastard.

  21. Slashdotted on Taking on an Online Extortionist · · Score: 1
    Online Extortion How a Bookmaker
    and a Whiz Kid
    Took On an Extortionist -
    and Won Facing an online extortion threat, Mickey Richardson bet his Web-based business on a networking whiz from Sacramento who first beat back the bad guys, then helped the cops nab them. If you collect revenue online, you'd better read this.

    By Scott Berinato

    Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003, 7:57 a.m.
    Origins of an Onslaught

    The e-mail began, "Your site is under attack," and it gave Mickey Richardson two choices: "You can send us $40K by Western Union [and] your site will be protected not just this weekend but for the next 12 months," or, "If you choose not to pay...you will be under attack each weekend for the next 20 weeks, or until you close your doors."

    Richardson runs BetCris.com, an online wagering site, one of hundreds of sites ensconced in Costa Rica that take bets from Americans (and others around the world) without concern for U.S. bookmaking laws. Richardson received the e-mail just as he and his competitors were preparing for the year's busiest wagering season. With pro and college football, pro and college basketball and other sports in full swing, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas about to create plenty of free time, BetCris and the others stood to rake in millions over the holidays. Richardson was even planning an advertising blitz for the season to drive new traffic to his site.

    If BetCris went down, he knew his customers would find another online bookie, "which will cost you tens of thousands of dollars in lost wagers and customers," the extortionists reminded him.

    Despite all that, the e-mail didn't have the fearsome effect on Richardson that the extortionists hoped it would. He just asked his network administrator, Glenn Lebumfacil, if they should be concerned. "I said - God, in hindsight, what an idiot - I said, 'We should be safe. I think our network is nice and tight,'" recalls Lebumfacil.

    As a precaution, Richardson alerted his ISP, but essentially, he says, "We kind of fluffed it off." The veteran bookmaker didn't panic because, in fact, he had dealt with online extortionists before. Two years earlier, hackers crashed BetCris.com with a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, and then demanded by e-mail a $500 protection fee in eGold (an online form of trading bullion). Richardson paid without a second thought. Compared to downtime, $500 was trivial.

    That first attack got his attention, though. Richardson consulted another industry veteran who confessed to having a similar problem, and who told Richardson to call a consultant named Barrett Lyon in Sacramento, Calif. Lyon didn't come to BetCris's offices - he had no interest in baby-sitting infrastructure in Costa Rica - but he did recommend some off-the-shelf products that had recently been developed specifically to fight DoS attacks. Lyon thought (actually he hoped) that he'd never hear from them again. Richardson and Lebumfacil were confident they had protected themselves.

    When the attack finally came on that Saturday in November, sometime after that first e-mail but before 11:30 a.m., BetCris crashed hard. The off-the-shelf products Lyon had recommended survived less than 10 minutes. BetCris's ISP crashed, and then the ISP for BetCris's ISP crashed. Richardson ran to the IT department, where Lebumfacil was watching the biggest DoS attack he'd ever seen. He remembers feeling sick to his stomach.

    At 1:03 p.m., another e-mail arrived. "I guess you have decided to fight instead of making a deal. We thought you were smart.... You have 1 hour to make a deal today or it will cost you $50K to make a deal on Sunday." Then they knocked BetCris.com offline again.

    The Extortion Problem

    We know this about online extortion: It happens. Evidence of its prevalence or damage is speculative and anecdotal but useful nonetheless in guiding CSOs to understand the nature of the crime. Anecdotally, experts from law enforcement and information security consultants believe that

  22. Re:Blockbuster? on Taking on an Online Extortionist · · Score: 1

    Hope they get Owen Wilson to play Cpt Toke N. Ring.

  23. Re:Organizing MP3s and Other File Collections? on Organizing MP3s and Other File Collections? · · Score: 3, Funny
    Just admit you have a pr0n collection.

    And the best way to organise it is to post it on the web, and let us investigate the best solution for you.

  24. Re:Your franchise is dead when... on No Need For Trek Anymore · · Score: 1

    What does Netcraft report?

  25. It's not too late to change the name on Red Hat Founder Offers Help in Apple vs.Tiger Lawsuit · · Score: 1

    How about "BMSWP" - Butthead Maker of Shitty WinTel PCs?