Lesson: Unlike many online merchants that (supposedly) delete your CC details after each transaction, PayPal dont, and have your number and details.
I don't want to spoil your party, but I seriously doubt any merchants ever delete the billing info. I know of no accounting system or computerized payment processing system that ever deletes transaction information intentionally. Maybe in the manual terminals, and maybe people who use windows and have to re-format and re-install every three months, but aside from that, it's a safe assumption that no matter where you do business, every merchant you've ever given your credit card number to, probably has a record somewhere of it. That's a scary thought, but I believe credit card fraud is not the big plague that it's made out to be. Getting CC information is no big deal; using it without getting caught is.
I ran into a problem with Paypal recently, explifying how they're they're there for you until you really need them.
I purchased a product from a merchant online (sleazebag named Big Impressions out of Arkansas (avoid these losers). They took my money and then didn't ship the product when it was ordered. I complained for several weeks and was blown off. By the time I complained to Paypal, it was just past 30 days from the transaction and Paypal refused to investigate because the transaction was 30 days old, so I got screwed.
Based on my research, in the absence of any terms, a merchant has 30 days (domestically) to ship a product, but Paypal requires you to report the problem within 30 days, so by the time the merchant legally screws you, Paypal doesn't have any responsibility to investigate. It's totally useless. Thanks for nothing Paypal!
Most spammers arent terribly sophisticated. Let's face it though, a handful are extremely smart and capable, otherwise we'd have gotten rid of them a long time ago.
Using your logic, roaches must be smart too.
The truth is spammers flourish because the government has their heads up their butts and don't care about non-mega-corporate crime. Spammers prey on the little guys and the little guys never get justice these days. Every big company affected by spam also profits from spam, so they're not motivated to see it eradicated.
Spammers are not smart. They're merely opportunistic. They've identified that the authorities don't have an interest in going after them; they know how to exploit the system and they get away with it because the authorities have a pathological aversion to enforcing the plethora of criminal laws that spammers violate on a daily basis.
In any case, even if your myth were real, it doesn't matter. Spamcop's doing real well and kicking spammer butt so if the guy worked for leadclick, he's their problem, not Spamcop's.
After going over the site, Hardened PHP appears to be a patch to the existing PHP. Why don't the authors just petition the folks developing PHP to include these patches in an upcoming version?
The problem I have with this project is that it's likely PHP-version dependent, and once you implement it, you have two different sources you have to synchronize code for (not unlike Apache+Mod_SSL). I'd rather not have twice as much work to incorporate these features if necessary.
nice intent but wrong approach
on
Hardened PHP
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
There's a fine line between securing a base system and crippling functionality. I'm all for the Hardened project, but I think ultimately it's the programmer's responsibility to make sure their code is secure.
A better approach might be to create some sort of code-parser that examines PHP code and warns the programmer of possible bad habits. Of course this should be prefaced with a long disclaimer that such a system isn't foolproof but is a good idea to run on any code to make sure you haven't overlooked any obvious problems.
One thing that blows me away. Sprint does this; I wouldn't be surprised if other carriers do as well, but when I get my statement, I get a list of the phone calls and time used, but I don't get a total. No total of minutes?? WTF is that? It seems like this is an obvious attempt to keep you from looking at whether or not your total monthly usage would make a different plan more economical. Now maybe you can hit some buttons on your phone and get totals, I don't know, but it seems ridiculous for a carrier to list all your calls, yet not sum it all up in a total!
I just signed up with AT&T wireless not a week ago.
Congrats! You're now in bed with the Verisign of wireless; the Microsoft of Telcos. The most expensive wireless company on the planet, with nowhere near the best calling area or plans.
I researched all the companies over many years. One company I would never deal with is AT&T.
McBride claims he doesn't know any more than we do. He's had barely any contact with the bank and all he knows is that he got a letter from them last Wednesday outlining what it was doing, but not explaining why.
McBride also claims that he doesn't know what BayStar's about either.
You gotta wonder what this guy does all day in his office. I'm thinking he's the member of an uber guild on Everquest with a level 65 rogue totally decked out in planar armor.
As a Shareware author in the late 80s and early 90s, I have some specific opinions on these issues. I wouldn't be as successful as I am today if it weren't for the jump start Shareware provided, but I often wonder whether or not I could do the same thing in today's industry. I doubt it.
I can see both sides of the issue. On one side you have people and companies whoring themselves out, giving away free software and services in order to compensate for not having resources to advertise, but at some point they need to see some return or else they can't sustain the development of their products.
On the other hand, you have have users who have become spoiled and selfish and expect everything to be free, and eveything to be super-cheap.
On yet another front, you have both commercial and shareware companies flooding the market with buggy and inferior products with little or no tech support. And then you have mafia like Quicken, forcing users to pay more and more each year to simply maintain the functionality of their software once they hoodwink users into converting over.
The whole industry is a mess. The one shining star in all of this is Open Source. There is a clear delineation between the for-profit and for-development arms of most of these projects and that's a refreshing change.
It used to be a gamble relying on shareware. You never knew if the company was going to be around or there'd ever be an update, or whether things would just suddenly stop working or break. Now you have the same thing with most of the commercial companies. I don't blame the users for being cautious about which products to support, but the bottom line is that people work hard to create these systems and if they don't get compensated one way or another, they can't keep up the work.
In the end, you get what you pay for, literally and figuratively. If you've never given a dime to the developers of systems you use on a regular basis, then shut your trap when they close up shop or are forced to adopt the new industry-standard of strong arming users into paying.
I can't speak for the others, but stay far away from PhpNuke. Ironic that you mentioned that. Yesterday we had a client who was running it have their web site defaced by a bunch of script kiddies. PhpNuke is an insecure POS in my opinion.
This doesn't surprise me at all. The way things are going, we're going to "stumble" on to more amazing discoveries that seem to appear out of nowhere with a fraction of the resources conventional wisdom dictates is necessary.
This is, in my opinion, the result of our culture more than anything else. Great minds are choosing not to pursue areas where their talents could be most utilized. Our society celebrates material gain and good looks more than intellect and wisdom.
When's the last time you heard about a scientist being commended on a grand scale in the media (aside from Atkins, which has now become a shill for a multi-million dollar diet industry)?
Who are the heros now? Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Brittney Spears? You can't hear three sentences about any of these people before their net worth or some other materialistic qualifier is implemented.
If you're bright and brilliant, scentific research doesn't seem like an appealing vocation, so we have dramatically fewer people with fewer resources working on cures and solutions to problems. Every once in awhile a few people who buck the trend pop their heads above radar and make a contribution, and then what's the topic? Money & power and fame, casting a superhuman shadow over the real value of their contributions.
I've always distrusted the ACLU. It's often (although not always) seemed to me they'd take a great deal of trouble to defend so-called left-wing causes such as flag burning as free speech, and devote as little effort as possible to defend so-called right-wing causes, such as protesting at abortion clinics.
That's really a narrow minded, uninformed perspective you have there, no doubt propagated by the media. It's as accurate a characterization of the ACLU as the myth that Al Gore Invented the Internet or the woman who sued McDonalds for spilling coffee was frivolous. If you do the research you find the media spins these things wildly out of control, or else finds the most atypical fringe examples and amplifies them as if they're locoust-sized plagues about to decend upon all mankind.
Here's a classic example of how left-wing the ACLU is:
Smith v. Collin A Nazi group wanted to march through a Chicago suburb, Skokie, where many Holocaust survivors lived. The ACLU's controversial challenge to the village's ban on the march was ultimately successful.
It's funny how right-wing pundits will harp for hours about three hippies chaining themselves to a tree for hours, and conveniently ignore the arrest of several hundred people who gathered in a park in Washington D.C. to protest the war.
The ACLU has done much to help all different groups regardless of political ideology. Here's just a sample:
Reno v. ACLU The Court struck down Congress' Communications Decency Act, which was an attempt to censor the Internet by banning "indecent" speech, ruling that "the interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship."
Board of Commissioners v. Umbehr Government contractors cannot be subjected to reprisals, such as the loss of a contract, for expressing their political views.
McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission A state prohibition against the anonymous distribution of political campaign literature violated the right to anonymous free speech.
Lebron v. Amtrak An artist argued successfully that Amtrak had been wrong to reject his billboard display because of its political message. The Court extended the First Amendment to corporations created by, and under the control of, the government.
Ladue v. Gilleo A Missouri town's ordinance that barred a homeowner from posting a sign in her bedroom window that said, "Say No to War in the Gulf - Call Congress Now!" was deemed to violate the First Amendment.
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah A city's ban on the ritual slaughter of animals as practiced by the Santeria religion was overturned as a violation of religious liberty since the city did permit such secular activities as hunting and fishing.
Cruzan v. Director of the Missouri Department of Health In the Court's first right-to-die case, the ACLU represented the family of a woman who had been in a persistent vegetative state for more than seven years. Although the Court did not go as far as the ACLU urged, it did recognize living wills as clear and convincing evidence of a patient's wishes.
Grutter v. Bollinger/Gratz v. Bollinger Providing a strong endorsement of affirmative action in higher education, the Court held that public universities have a compelling interest in creating a diverse student body and that race may be treated as a "plus" factor in the admissions process.
Lawrence v. Texas The Court struck down a Texas sodomy statute that criminalized private acts of sexual intimacy between same-sex couples, expanding the privacy rights of all Americans and promoting the right of lesbians and gay men to equal treatment under the law.
Chicago v. Morales Struck down Chicago's anti-gang loitering law which disproportionately targeted African American and Latino youth who were not engaged in criminal activity, and resulted in the arrest of 45,000 innocent people
I saw a video of Rumsfeld the other night that was broadcast by the Daily Show and Rumsfeld actually said this:
"But one thing appears reasonably certain, and that's that those who make allegations of a culture of deception, of intimidation or cover-up need to be extremely careful about such accusations."
Man, I just LOVE Slashdot. It's like driving across the desert and then your car breaks down... in front of a combo garage/strip club during happy hour.
Let me buy a round of drinks for all my friends, including "Kobe."
I can't wait to see how the Bush babies try to spin this one.
Who says it will make news at all? Somewhere there's an unexplored angle of Michael Jackson or Kobi Bryant's trials that has not received full media saturation.
7. note on java support. the software product may contain support for programs written in java. java technology is not fault tolerant and is not designed, manufactured, or intended for use or resale as on-line control equipment in hazardous environments requiring fail-safe performance, such as in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, air traffic control, direct life support machines, or weapons systems, in which the failure of java technology could lead directly to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage.
Interesting that they pawn this all off on Java and not anything having to do with Microsoft.
I assume the awards are based on creativity, content, form and function. To spawn a window a fraction of the size for which the web site was designed is totally stupid.
Yea, I can resize the window, but it's BAD DESIGN, counterproductive and inappropriate, not unlike your comment.
Slashdot Mirror
Lesson: Unlike many online merchants that (supposedly) delete your CC details after each transaction, PayPal dont, and have your number and details.
I don't want to spoil your party, but I seriously doubt any merchants ever delete the billing info. I know of no accounting system or computerized payment processing system that ever deletes transaction information intentionally. Maybe in the manual terminals, and maybe people who use windows and have to re-format and re-install every three months, but aside from that, it's a safe assumption that no matter where you do business, every merchant you've ever given your credit card number to, probably has a record somewhere of it. That's a scary thought, but I believe credit card fraud is not the big plague that it's made out to be. Getting CC information is no big deal; using it without getting caught is.
I ran into a problem with Paypal recently, explifying how they're they're there for you until you really need them.
I purchased a product from a merchant online (sleazebag named Big Impressions out of Arkansas (avoid these losers). They took my money and then didn't ship the product when it was ordered. I complained for several weeks and was blown off. By the time I complained to Paypal, it was just past 30 days from the transaction and Paypal refused to investigate because the transaction was 30 days old, so I got screwed.
Based on my research, in the absence of any terms, a merchant has 30 days (domestically) to ship a product, but Paypal requires you to report the problem within 30 days, so by the time the merchant legally screws you, Paypal doesn't have any responsibility to investigate. It's totally useless. Thanks for nothing Paypal!
Most spammers arent terribly sophisticated. Let's face it though, a handful are extremely smart and capable, otherwise we'd have gotten rid of them a long time ago.
Using your logic, roaches must be smart too.
The truth is spammers flourish because the government has their heads up their butts and don't care about non-mega-corporate crime. Spammers prey on the little guys and the little guys never get justice these days. Every big company affected by spam also profits from spam, so they're not motivated to see it eradicated.
Spammers are not smart. They're merely opportunistic. They've identified that the authorities don't have an interest in going after them; they know how to exploit the system and they get away with it because the authorities have a pathological aversion to enforcing the plethora of criminal laws that spammers violate on a daily basis.
Dream on.
In any case, even if your myth were real, it doesn't matter. Spamcop's doing real well and kicking spammer butt so if the guy worked for leadclick, he's their problem, not Spamcop's.
After going over the site, Hardened PHP appears to be a patch to the existing PHP. Why don't the authors just petition the folks developing PHP to include these patches in an upcoming version?
The problem I have with this project is that it's likely PHP-version dependent, and once you implement it, you have two different sources you have to synchronize code for (not unlike Apache+Mod_SSL). I'd rather not have twice as much work to incorporate these features if necessary.
There's a fine line between securing a base system and crippling functionality. I'm all for the Hardened project, but I think ultimately it's the programmer's responsibility to make sure their code is secure.
A better approach might be to create some sort of code-parser that examines PHP code and warns the programmer of possible bad habits. Of course this should be prefaced with a long disclaimer that such a system isn't foolproof but is a good idea to run on any code to make sure you haven't overlooked any obvious problems.
The best scammer-scam I've ever seen is the infamous The Holy Church of Fish Bread & Wine. If you haven't seen that one, be sure to check it out.
One thing that blows me away. Sprint does this; I wouldn't be surprised if other carriers do as well, but when I get my statement, I get a list of the phone calls and time used, but I don't get a total. No total of minutes?? WTF is that? It seems like this is an obvious attempt to keep you from looking at whether or not your total monthly usage would make a different plan more economical. Now maybe you can hit some buttons on your phone and get totals, I don't know, but it seems ridiculous for a carrier to list all your calls, yet not sum it all up in a total!
I just signed up with AT&T wireless not a week ago.
Congrats! You're now in bed with the Verisign of wireless; the Microsoft of Telcos. The most expensive wireless company on the planet, with nowhere near the best calling area or plans.
I researched all the companies over many years. One company I would never deal with is AT&T.
NASA's finances in disarray? Compared to whom?
./ spewing this propaganda? Find me one company employing more than 10 people that doesn't have questionable books. You can't.
Why is
Actually I think Darl reminds me most of the Kids in the Hall skit, "The Bass Player".
McBride claims he doesn't know any more than we do. He's had barely any contact with the bank and all he knows is that he got a letter from them last Wednesday outlining what it was doing, but not explaining why.
McBride also claims that he doesn't know what BayStar's about either.
You gotta wonder what this guy does all day in his office. I'm thinking he's the member of an uber guild on Everquest with a level 65 rogue totally decked out in planar armor.
It's obvious Darl was describing the value of his company.
How will these robots be able to distinguish between a terrorist attack and the republicans' rollback of environmental regulations?
As a Shareware author in the late 80s and early 90s, I have some specific opinions on these issues. I wouldn't be as successful as I am today if it weren't for the jump start Shareware provided, but I often wonder whether or not I could do the same thing in today's industry. I doubt it.
I can see both sides of the issue. On one side you have people and companies whoring themselves out, giving away free software and services in order to compensate for not having resources to advertise, but at some point they need to see some return or else they can't sustain the development of their products.
On the other hand, you have have users who have become spoiled and selfish and expect everything to be free, and eveything to be super-cheap.
On yet another front, you have both commercial and shareware companies flooding the market with buggy and inferior products with little or no tech support. And then you have mafia like Quicken, forcing users to pay more and more each year to simply maintain the functionality of their software once they hoodwink users into converting over.
The whole industry is a mess. The one shining star in all of this is Open Source. There is a clear delineation between the for-profit and for-development arms of most of these projects and that's a refreshing change.
It used to be a gamble relying on shareware. You never knew if the company was going to be around or there'd ever be an update, or whether things would just suddenly stop working or break. Now you have the same thing with most of the commercial companies. I don't blame the users for being cautious about which products to support, but the bottom line is that people work hard to create these systems and if they don't get compensated one way or another, they can't keep up the work.
In the end, you get what you pay for, literally and figuratively. If you've never given a dime to the developers of systems you use on a regular basis, then shut your trap when they close up shop or are forced to adopt the new industry-standard of strong arming users into paying.
I can't speak for the others, but stay far away from PhpNuke. Ironic that you mentioned that. Yesterday we had a client who was running it have their web site defaced by a bunch of script kiddies. PhpNuke is an insecure POS in my opinion.
This doesn't surprise me at all. The way things are going, we're going to "stumble" on to more amazing discoveries that seem to appear out of nowhere with a fraction of the resources conventional wisdom dictates is necessary.
This is, in my opinion, the result of our culture more than anything else. Great minds are choosing not to pursue areas where their talents could be most utilized. Our society celebrates material gain and good looks more than intellect and wisdom.
When's the last time you heard about a scientist being commended on a grand scale in the media (aside from Atkins, which has now become a shill for a multi-million dollar diet industry)?
Who are the heros now? Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Brittney Spears? You can't hear three sentences about any of these people before their net worth or some other materialistic qualifier is implemented.
If you're bright and brilliant, scentific research doesn't seem like an appealing vocation, so we have dramatically fewer people with fewer resources working on cures and solutions to problems. Every once in awhile a few people who buck the trend pop their heads above radar and make a contribution, and then what's the topic? Money & power and fame, casting a superhuman shadow over the real value of their contributions.
That's really a narrow minded, uninformed perspective you have there, no doubt propagated by the media. It's as accurate a characterization of the ACLU as the myth that Al Gore Invented the Internet or the woman who sued McDonalds for spilling coffee was frivolous. If you do the research you find the media spins these things wildly out of control, or else finds the most atypical fringe examples and amplifies them as if they're locoust-sized plagues about to decend upon all mankind.
Here's a classic example of how left-wing the ACLU is:
It's funny how right-wing pundits will harp for hours about three hippies chaining themselves to a tree for hours, and conveniently ignore the arrest of several hundred people who gathered in a park in Washington D.C. to protest the war.
The ACLU has done much to help all different groups regardless of political ideology. Here's just a sample:
Reno v. ACLU
The Court struck down Congress' Communications Decency Act, which was an attempt to censor the Internet by banning "indecent" speech, ruling that "the interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship."
Board of Commissioners v. Umbehr
Government contractors cannot be subjected to reprisals, such as the loss of a contract, for expressing their political views.
McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission
A state prohibition against the anonymous distribution of political campaign literature violated the right to anonymous free speech.
Lebron v. Amtrak
An artist argued successfully that Amtrak had been wrong to reject his billboard display because of its political message. The Court extended the First Amendment to corporations created by, and under the control of, the government.
Ladue v. Gilleo
A Missouri town's ordinance that barred a homeowner from posting a sign in her bedroom window that said, "Say No to War in the Gulf - Call Congress Now!" was deemed to violate the First Amendment.
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah
A city's ban on the ritual slaughter of animals as practiced by the Santeria religion was overturned as a violation of religious liberty since the city did permit such secular activities as hunting and fishing.
Cruzan v. Director of the Missouri Department of Health
In the Court's first right-to-die case, the ACLU represented the family of a woman who had been in a persistent vegetative state for more than seven years. Although the Court did not go as far as the ACLU urged, it did recognize living wills as clear and convincing evidence of a patient's wishes.
Grutter v. Bollinger/Gratz v. Bollinger
Providing a strong endorsement of affirmative action in higher education, the Court held that public universities have a compelling interest in creating a diverse student body and that race may be treated as a "plus" factor in the admissions process.
Lawrence v. Texas
The Court struck down a Texas sodomy statute that criminalized private acts of sexual intimacy between same-sex couples, expanding the privacy rights of all Americans and promoting the right of lesbians and gay men to equal treatment under the law.
Chicago v. Morales
Struck down Chicago's anti-gang loitering law which disproportionately targeted African American and Latino youth who were not engaged in criminal activity, and resulted in the arrest of 45,000 innocent people
I saw a video of Rumsfeld the other night that was broadcast by the Daily Show and Rumsfeld actually said this:
"But one thing appears reasonably certain, and that's that those who make allegations of a culture of deception, of intimidation or cover-up need to be extremely careful about such accusations."
Wow. That's from a DOD Town Meeting, May 11, 2004
This is what we're dealing with people.
It's spelled "Kobe", not "Kobi."
RETARD.
Man, I just LOVE Slashdot. It's like driving across the desert and then your car breaks down... in front of a combo garage/strip club during happy hour.
Let me buy a round of drinks for all my friends, including "Kobe."
I can't wait to see how the Bush babies try to spin this one.
Who says it will make news at all? Somewhere there's an unexplored angle of Michael Jackson or Kobi Bryant's trials that has not received full media saturation.
7. note on java support. the software product may contain support for programs written in java. java technology is not fault tolerant and is not designed, manufactured, or intended for use or resale as on-line control equipment in hazardous environments requiring fail-safe performance, such
as in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, air traffic control, direct life support machines, or weapons systems, in which the failure of java technology could lead directly to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage.
Interesting that they pawn this all off on Java and not anything having to do with Microsoft.
Oh wait... it gets even better...
A portrait of you and Stevie Nicks
I think it's confirmed now. All freaks on planet earth have their own web site.
I assume the awards are based on creativity, content, form and function. To spawn a window a fraction of the size for which the web site was designed is totally stupid.
Yea, I can resize the window, but it's BAD DESIGN, counterproductive and inappropriate, not unlike your comment.
ROFL...
I was going to post the same thing!
Tell me that isn't some veiled golden-showers weird sex foot-fetish thing... it sure looks like it.