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User: mabu

mabu's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 1,959

  1. "Microsoft security?" on Security Researcher Pleads Guilty To Hacking Into Microsoft and Nintendo (theverge.com) · · Score: 2

    The guy hacked into Microsoft's network, and enjoyed access for more than five months, including sharing logon credentials with the hacker community, and Microsoft only seemed to find out after he uploaded malware to their network?

  2. Wasn't it obvious? on 19-Year-Old WinRAR Vulnerability Leads To Over 100 Malware Exploits (slashgear.com) · · Score: 1

    ...that there were some bugs in WinRAR when all of a sudden everybody starts getting .RAR file attachments from random people?

    Why use an obscure compression program otherwise?

  3. Re:Crypto is MLM on QuadrigaCX Allegedly Traded Against Its Own Customers Without Assets To Back Them (ambcrypto.com) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, in fairness, the early days of crypto currency treated crypto currency like an actual currency: having zero intrinsic value and mainly being a placeholder for goods and services that were exchanged. In fact the original premise of Bitcoin was as a micro-payment system of nominal value, allowing people to send tiny bits of pennies, that in aggregate would matter to third world countries and various charities, etc.

    What we see now, is something completely different: the treatment of crypto as an investment security itself, which makes absolutely no sense because it has nothing tangible backing it up.

    So the problem isn't with bitcoin as much as the perverse way people have now begun to use it, which is fundamentally different than how it was originally designed.

    Now bitcoin (and all crypto) is basically a distributed money laundering system with a Ponzi scheme on top. There is no reason for anybody to be in this space unless they're a criminal, or want to engage in criminal-like behavior (such as profiting by exploiting others and not offering anything of real value in return).

    Crypto and blockchain offer nothing to regular, ethical businesspeople. But they're like catnip to anarchists and narcissists.

  4. It amazes me that this Ponzi scheme is still ongoing. There's ample evidence of wash trading at all the major exchanges.

    One of my favorite quotes on this is from the NYU economics professor who was famous for identifying the housing bubble, who also called out the crypto currency bubble in 2017, is asked again what he thinks of the crypto movement:

    "I also have attended many of these crypto or blockchain conferences. I met some of these individuals, and I must say I’ve never seen in my life people who on one side are so arrogant in their views, who are total zealots and fanatics about this new asset class, while at the same time completely and totally ignorant of basic economics, finance, money, banking, central banking, monetary policy.

    They want to reinvent everything about money, but most of them are absolutely totally clueless. The ratio between arrogant and ignorant is astounding — I have never seen such a gap in my life. These are fanatics. Some of them, like criminals, zealots, scammers, carnival barkers, insiders who are just talking their book 24/7.

    There is an element of excess in every bubble, but the typical bubble is an outgrowth of some technological evolution that maybe changes the world for the better. The internet was in a bubble in the late 1990s, but it was a real thing but valuations of many internet-related stocks were sky-high. Prices crashed and dot-coms went bust, but the internet kept on growing. Billions of people used it, and it has changed the world. Cryptocurrency as a technology has absolutely no basis for success, and the mother of all bubbles is now bust.

    Twitter and in-person interactions with the fans of cryptocurrencies made me stronger and more secure in my belief."

  5. Re:Que the haters in 3... 2... 1... on 'The Big Bang Theory' Is Finally Ending (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    >Where that theory falls apart is all the jokes that normal people wouldn't get.

    Look at Dennis Miller.

    *Nobody* got his jokes, at all. And people still laughed.

    "I mean, like this thread is about as insightful as Che Guevera and Maya Angelo doing the Cha Cha in a Mey Laigh Bistro with Earl Palmer."

  6. Re: Que the haters in 3... 2... 1... on 'The Big Bang Theory' Is Finally Ending (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    You two should have been writers on TBBT.

  7. Re:Oddball Coolness of Geekdom on 'The Big Bang Theory' Is Finally Ending (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    >Sheldon makes semi-functional Aspergers cool in its own infuriating way.

    Sheldon didn't have Aspergers.

    His character is clearly suffering from narcissistic personality disorder.

    The fact that he's smart, seems to confuse people. He has very little empathy for other people. He treats his friends and associates like shit. Call his character what it really is. If Donald Trump had a high IQ, he'd be Sheldon Cooper.

  8. Re:Que the haters in 3... 2... 1... on 'The Big Bang Theory' Is Finally Ending (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    Sheldon wasn't autistic.

    Sheldon was a textbook narcissist.

    The show in effect glamourized extreme narcissism.

    Oh look how incredibly selfish and self-absorbed that dude is, but he's smart and occasionally, if only temporarily, recgonizes he's a douchebag, that's soooo cute!

  9. Let's talk about what Sheldon really represents on 'The Big Bang Theory' Is Finally Ending (theguardian.com) · · Score: 1

    When I first saw the show, I found it amusing and refreshing that "nerd culture" was being hilighted. There were definitely some really hilarious plots and dialogue.

    But then Sheldon became the focus of everything. Clearly suffering from a pronounced case of narcissistic personality disorder, and he became the focal point of the series. Each week, he treated people horribly, was incredibly insensitive and sociopathic -- sometimes even psychopathic, and *cue the laugh track*.. ha ha ha ha

    Watching the show's success spiral upwards was to me, a sad testimony on how sociopathic our society has become. How it's amusing to watch a horrible, horrible person treat his Stockhom-syndromed friends.

  10. You want to nit-pick over the legal definition of "collusion."

    As if it really makes a difference in the big picture?

    Yes, there are two different planets here.

    We all know that if 1/100th this much evidence for "collusion" was attributed to Hillary Clinton, her severed head would be on a pole in front of the white house.

  11. Re:How about nope ? on MoviePass' New Business Plan Is To Charge You Whatever It Wants (qz.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    7) Sit through 30 minutes of fucking advertisements before the movie starts.

    Fuck. That.

  12. Re:Just Stop on MoviePass' New Business Plan Is To Charge You Whatever It Wants (qz.com) · · Score: 1

    Where else can you get a $14 tub of popcorn?

  13. When they came for our online civil rights... on Digital IDs Needed To End 'Mob Rule' Online, Says UK's Security Minister (independent.co.uk) · · Score: 1

    ... I thought for sure it was going to be in the name of protecting us from child porn, not online bullying.

  14. Who's paying for the PR hit campaign against Musk on Tesla Faces Accelerating Rate of Model 3 Refunds (recode.net) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Two front-page, back-to-back stories maligning Tesla and Space-X, by the same submitter.

    Who's paying for this?

  15. Re:Techie Republicans why on Bipartisan Bill Seeks Warrants For Police Use of 'Stingray' Cell Trackers (usatoday.com) · · Score: 0

    The exception does not prove the rule.

    In the most general of senses, the Democratic party is much more responsive to the will of the electorate. The Republicans, on the other hand, tend to get in office and declare they have a mandate and no longer listen to what the people want.

  16. Re:DMCA, CDA, CDA II (COPA), felony DRM: Clinton on Bipartisan Bill Seeks Warrants For Police Use of 'Stingray' Cell Trackers (usatoday.com) · · Score: 0

    Not one of those bills were authored by democrats.

  17. Re:Techie Republicans why on Bipartisan Bill Seeks Warrants For Police Use of 'Stingray' Cell Trackers (usatoday.com) · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Al Gore led the way in the funding initiative that created the Internet.

    Politicians are only as attentive as the people who lobby them.

    It boggles me how people seem to think their politicians are mind readers and need to magically understand their priorities. You do realize they aren't monitoring your Facebook feed or paying any attention to the retarded petitions you fill out? If you want your politicians to represent your priorities, call them. Complaining that they don't represent your interests when you don't do jack squat to get their attention is the epitome of ignorance.

  18. Re:Techie Republicans why on Bipartisan Bill Seeks Warrants For Police Use of 'Stingray' Cell Trackers (usatoday.com) · · Score: 4, Informative

    And let's dispense with this "bipartisan bill" bullshit.

    This bill was authored by Democrats, and one republican helped sponsor it. That does not make it a "bipartisan effort" in any real sense of the word.

  19. It's the height of irony to blame the loss of decent jobs on unions.

    Look up the definition of a standard corporation and you'll find nowhere in their charter is to create jobs or make the world a better place. All corporations care about is creating value for their shareholders. If they can outsource, replace employees with robots, poison the air and water (and get away with it) they absolutely will.

    Unions are one of the few ways workers can protect themselves from the predatory nature built into every corporation.

  20. Anti-spyware and anti-malware is not necessary if you follow a few simple guidelines: don't click on anything suspicious, don't use html e-mail, don't use internet explorer, install a whitelist plugin like NoScript into your browser.

    I haven't run av software in ten years and never had a problem.

  21. vote on Tesla Sues Michigan Over Sales Ban (usatoday.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    People need to stop voting for asshats like the MI governor. They should be allowed to do business. The fossil fuel industry is intent on dragging us into the abyss and their minions need to be kicked to the curb.

  22. grass "roots" effort to stop this on Verizon Offered To Install Marketers' Apps Directly On Subscribers' Phones (adage.com) · · Score: 1

    I think if consumers were aware they had more options, this wouldn't happen. I would like to see some consumer friendly web sites that let people know what options are available for each model phone and carrier in terms of controlling apps and bloat. I find it very frustrating Verizon has a bunch of stuff bundled on my phone that I can't un-install, but I'm not sure what my options are if I want to take matters into my own hands?

  23. Re:He didn't "build" anything on Online Fame Distracts 9th-Grader Who Built That Clock Mistaken For A Bomb (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 1, Funny

    He took a bunch of components that other people created and put them in a different enclosure.

    Shame he left the country... He would have had a bright career at Apple.

  24. Re:Slashdot Smear? on Peter Thiel Is Interested In Harvesting The Blood Of The Young (gawker.com) · · Score: 1

    >Probably the dumbest sentence I'll read all day.

    Probably the dumbest sentence I'll read all day.

  25. Re:This story is garbage on Pokemon Go Was Never Able To Read Your Email (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    someone upmod this please