1. Signs up for an Ameritrade account using a unique e-mail address.
2. Gets pump and dump spam at that address.
3. Profit!
The balance of the article:
a) outlines a variety of conspiratorial possibilities
b) finds that other Ameritrade customers get pump and dump spam
c) makes repeated reference to a lost customer data tape from 2005.
d) Ameritrade has poor customer service.
Although damages could be awarded, in practice they generally do not come anywhere near covering all of the costs associated with defending a claim of libel.
As for Geist being included, it's standard practice with libel suits to name every person or entity involved with further disseminating the libelous information; that is, each entity which played a contributory role in spreading the mis-information.
This is in part because an important element in a libel case in Canada is assessing how widely a libelous statement was spread, and by extension, how much damage it cost.
IANAL, but I sure as hell hired one when I was sued for libel. Learned a lot, and we won.
I'm the first to admit that I would love an automated update for Wordpress - the current manual updates are just enough of a pain that invariably they get delayed.
That said, let's get some perspective on what is described by the author as "a desparate (sic) attempt to try and educate WordPress Plugin developers to some of the common security problems that can occur."
From a quick reading of the guy's postings, these weaknesses really only allow one thing: Admin access to the Wordpress site.
For the vast majority of sites this is really not a life threatening situation - if you're pOwned your best friends might lose access to your archive of cat pictures and right wing political ramblings. Or you might lose the $4.98 a month in Adsense revenue that you're counting on to fund your retirement.
Those sites that actually matter to a business or organization are the ones most likely to be properly updated and backed up.
1) Take the first 8 digits of a standard 16-digit credit card number. Search for them on Google in "nnnn nnnn" form.
2) You'll find lots of credit card numbers
3) Profit
4) Credit Card companies should have employees who Google for credit card numbers and de-activate any card whose number is found in the ' net.
Thank you.
It's no surprise that half of the comments here boil down to "Users are idiots, especially Windows users."
As some people note though, the bottom line is that Windows works fine for most people, is familiar, and probably most important runs all of the programs that they want to use.
Would I love to break away from Microsoft? Sure. That's why I bought a Mac. Is Apple the alternative that I wanted? Unfortunately not. Ugly details here.
Is Linux the alternative? Not even close. If the out of the box (or off the torrent) install won't play DVDs or MP3s, it's not ready for public consumption. An out of the box Windows install generally*** just works without searching the web and downloading obscure codecs and media players.
*** "Generally" means "most of the time, for most people." Don't waste my time telling me about the time when it didn't work for your specific situation. You are an exception, OK?
Really, this is not a troll, but can you imagine anyone but a Mac user launching this lawsuit? Yeesh..... I see a new Mac/PC commercial coming. "Hey PC... what are all of those groovy colors?"
First there was this guy whining because it took more than one button click to bail out of the credit card subscription to an anti-virus service, now it's parents whining because they didn't anticipate that the cel company provided less minutes than their kid uses.
Is it really too much to ask that people read the contract or EULA, and if they accept it, not complain when they find that they made a mistake?
I'm not even remotely Libertarian, but for God's sake accept some personal responsibility for your actions.
Having actually read TFA, none of these companies make it that hard to know that your credit card charge is recurring, although two place that information in the EULA.
I wouldn't consider myself mis-led by any of these products, and actually would have assumed that when I purchase a "subscription" it will be renewed annually using my credit card information.
Most absurd though was the author's complaint that he wasn't immediately offered an option to suspend the use of his credit card info for renewals, but still have the service remain live.
After your purchase, you can go to Microsoft's Billing and account management page and sign in with your Windows Live e-mail and password. There, you can click on the service you purchased (Windows Live OneCare) and see links for complete cancellation of the service itself. But nowhere is there information on simply canceling recurring credit-card charges.
Lord folks, do we really need to go this far to find something to complain about?
They worked, they worked well, and I could see how they helped me.
Somewhere along the line though they became first large, then irritating, then expensive to keep updated (pay for virus signature updates?), then finally began actually damaging systems.
And somewhere along the line I stopped buying their products, installing their products, and recommending their products.
I've come to view Microsoft the same way. Between excessive DRM, excessive hardware demands, and a generally customer hostile attitude I find it hard to think that I would ever move to a Vista machine. Thus far Windows 2000 still does everything that I need with a lot less hassle.
Someday though I will need to upgrade. The question is what will fill the gap? Linux still isn't there, nor are most Open Source replacements for common Microsoft and Adobe applications.
Is there a company that can step in with a viable replacement for Photoshop or MS Office? Can OpenOffice or GIMP make the final leap to become a reasonable and reliable alternative to those tools? I don't want something that sort of does everything that Photoshop does, I want a professional tool that does everything, and does it equally well.
The door is open, we're just waiting someone to step through.
What we need is an Open Source standard for connecting audio and video devices. That way every piece of gear would have a consistent interface and connections, and it would be easy to configure and understand.
Especially for people without specialized technical expertise.
The law could use sharper teeth, but it's a natural and necessary progression of the movement to clamp down on those who find the need to constantly communicate more important than the safety of their fellow travelers."
Nonsense. There are already laws on the books which deal specifically with driver inattention. They have been there for some sixty or seventy years.
Why is it that anything involving a cel phone demands a special law prohibiting it? It's all feeling rather moralistic.
Tell you what, I'll let you ban cel phones in cars if you'll also ban coffee, donuts, makeup, radios, small children, pets, smoking, chewing tobacco, notepads, newspapers, and passengers, all of which can distract a driver.
Once every car contains only one hermetically sealed individual we should be 100% safe.
Sigh, are basic editorial skills too much to ask here? (I know, it's a rhetorical question).
TFA does not say that "the company found that nearly 1 in ten sites (or about 450,000) are loaded with malicious software." This implies that there are a total of less than a half million sites that pose a risk.
It said that of the 4.5 million pages examined, "about 450,000 were capable of launching so-called "drive-by downloads"..."
It also notes that "A further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user's computer, the team report."
The problem is probably quite a bit larger than presented in the summary, even if one ignores the confusion between "sites" and "pages".
I live in a right to work state, employers can fire people at any time for any reason...
Wow, I've never seen "Right Work" defined so simply before....
Anyhow, the norm in many jurisdictions is to give neither positive nor negative recommendations, only to confirm that a person had been employed, in what position, and for how long.
Although it's tempting to say "We'll only give a recommendation if it is positive, and say nothing if it's negative," you create a situation where not commenting implies that someone was a bad employee.
Better to remain neutral and say "We don't comment on past employees."
And if you're an ex-employee, ask a friend to call in for a recommendation and see what you get.
Retail theft of entertainment products, including video games, accounts for as much as $400 million in annual losses, according to the Entertainment Merchants Association.
I just love those numbers. I'm much more concerned about the estimated $120 million in lost productivity resulting from time spent dealing with broken shoelaces, and the estimated $275 million in annual losses to people who are shortchanged by hot dog vendors.
How about a moratorium on all numbers that were pulled out of a PR guy's ass?
Ok, so Florida is looney tunes. I'll grant you that. In most places though pawn shops, and a lot of general second hand stores, already require ID in order for you to sell them an item. That's hardly news.
As for CDs, anyone who has run a college or community radio station will tell you that "missing" CDs are more than likely to show up at the local used record shop unless you've made a point of having a close relationship with them.
CDs and DVDs are a favorite with petty thieves everywhere.
Still, Florida is idiotic. Shame, since it looks so intelligent on CSI Miami...
I do not agree. Most companies make it far too difficult to make contact with a real living breathing person. A recent problem with Yahoo mail led to a string of three near identical robo-messages, all of which explained patiently how I should configure Internet Explorer to work best with their service.
Problem was I was using a Mac, which hasn't had IE since version 5.5. No way could I get robo-support to acknowledge that important detail.
Customer support is viewed as an expense, not an investment, and the less people who make it past brain dead on-line help schema, user forums, and hidden e-mail links the less has to be spent responding to them.
In any event, if you're selling a critical application like an Operating system then yes, I have every right to insist that it does what you say, in the manner that you say it will, and that you will disclose any known problems or dangers in a forthright fashion.
If I'm using freeware or open source products I gladly help out with bug reports and beta testing.
If, as is the case with most major software packages, I am being asked to pay several hundred dollars I expect that you should maintain a well trained staff whose job it is to find and fix problems. That's part of what I'm paying for.
I'd say that faxes are a disappearing technology. Last year I finally stopped maintaining a dedicated fax line. It had reached the point where I was receiving several junk faxes each week, and only one or two legitimate faxes each month.
Between e-mail and PDF it just wasn't cost effective anymore.
I now use the fax machine for outgoing once or twice a month, and if I really need to receive we just arrange a time when I'm sitting next to the machine and trigger it manually.
I'd agree though that if you're one of those businesses that still has to receive lots of faxes (and there are better technologies now days) then the PC based solution makes sense.
Slashdot Mirror
Additionally, the team is working on supporting Safari on Mac OS X in a future release.
I'm sure that will show up about the same time as Picasa for OS X, which has been coming for what - four years?
1. Signs up for an Ameritrade account using a unique e-mail address.
2. Gets pump and dump spam at that address.
3. Profit!
The balance of the article:
a) outlines a variety of conspiratorial possibilities
b) finds that other Ameritrade customers get pump and dump spam
c) makes repeated reference to a lost customer data tape from 2005.
d) Ameritrade has poor customer service.
Play PacMan?
Although damages could be awarded, in practice they generally do not come anywhere near covering all of the costs associated with defending a claim of libel.
As for Geist being included, it's standard practice with libel suits to name every person or entity involved with further disseminating the libelous information; that is, each entity which played a contributory role in spreading the mis-information.
This is in part because an important element in a libel case in Canada is assessing how widely a libelous statement was spread, and by extension, how much damage it cost.
IANAL, but I sure as hell hired one when I was sued for libel. Learned a lot, and we won.
First all of my audio producer friends complain about how cel phones will splat on a recording if they go off during an interview, now this.
Somehow the tinfoil beanie types who worry about brain damage are seeming less tinfoil beanie-ish these days...
Where's that Reynolds Wrap?
I'm the first to admit that I would love an automated update for Wordpress - the current manual updates are just enough of a pain that invariably they get delayed.
That said, let's get some perspective on what is described by the author as "a desparate (sic) attempt to try and educate WordPress Plugin developers to some of the common security problems that can occur."
From a quick reading of the guy's postings, these weaknesses really only allow one thing: Admin access to the Wordpress site.
For the vast majority of sites this is really not a life threatening situation - if you're pOwned your best friends might lose access to your archive of cat pictures and right wing political ramblings. Or you might lose the $4.98 a month in Adsense revenue that you're counting on to fund your retirement.
Those sites that actually matter to a business or organization are the ones most likely to be properly updated and backed up.
Not really cause to lose much sleep here....
I'll save you 11,000 characters:
1) Take the first 8 digits of a standard 16-digit credit card number. Search for them on Google in "nnnn nnnn" form.
2) You'll find lots of credit card numbers
3) Profit
4) Credit Card companies should have employees who Google for credit card numbers and de-activate any card whose number is found in the ' net. Thank you.
It's no surprise that half of the comments here boil down to "Users are idiots, especially Windows users."
As some people note though, the bottom line is that Windows works fine for most people, is familiar, and probably most important runs all of the programs that they want to use.
Would I love to break away from Microsoft? Sure. That's why I bought a Mac. Is Apple the alternative that I wanted? Unfortunately not. Ugly details here.
Is Linux the alternative? Not even close. If the out of the box (or off the torrent) install won't play DVDs or MP3s, it's not ready for public consumption. An out of the box Windows install generally*** just works without searching the web and downloading obscure codecs and media players.
*** "Generally" means "most of the time, for most people." Don't waste my time telling me about the time when it didn't work for your specific situation. You are an exception, OK?
Really, this is not a troll, but can you imagine anyone but a Mac user launching this lawsuit? Yeesh..... I see a new Mac/PC commercial coming. "Hey PC... what are all of those groovy colors?"
First there was this guy whining because it took more than one button click to bail out of the credit card subscription to an anti-virus service, now it's parents whining because they didn't anticipate that the cel company provided less minutes than their kid uses.
Is it really too much to ask that people read the contract or EULA, and if they accept it, not complain when they find that they made a mistake?
I'm not even remotely Libertarian, but for God's sake accept some personal responsibility for your actions.
I can dash out a letter saying "thanks for the service, now please cancel it" in 10 minutes. I can get it stamped and posted in another 10-15 minutes.
You forgot to add a half hour to go and buy stamps because you haven't actually mailed anything in an envelope for the last eleven months.
Here's a poll idea: How many Slashdot users actually know what the current first class postage rate is for their country? I don't.
What's wrong with adding a note in your calendar to log back in at 5 months and 29 days to cancel? Jeez, how helpless are people these days?
I wouldn't consider myself mis-led by any of these products, and actually would have assumed that when I purchase a "subscription" it will be renewed annually using my credit card information.
Most absurd though was the author's complaint that he wasn't immediately offered an option to suspend the use of his credit card info for renewals, but still have the service remain live.
Lord folks, do we really need to go this far to find something to complain about?
For years I always installed Symantec products, and before them Central Point and Norton products.
They worked, they worked well, and I could see how they helped me.
Somewhere along the line though they became first large, then irritating, then expensive to keep updated (pay for virus signature updates?), then finally began actually damaging systems.
And somewhere along the line I stopped buying their products, installing their products, and recommending their products.
I've come to view Microsoft the same way. Between excessive DRM, excessive hardware demands, and a generally customer hostile attitude I find it hard to think that I would ever move to a Vista machine. Thus far Windows 2000 still does everything that I need with a lot less hassle.
Someday though I will need to upgrade. The question is what will fill the gap? Linux still isn't there, nor are most Open Source replacements for common Microsoft and Adobe applications.
Is there a company that can step in with a viable replacement for Photoshop or MS Office? Can OpenOffice or GIMP make the final leap to become a reasonable and reliable alternative to those tools? I don't want something that sort of does everything that Photoshop does, I want a professional tool that does everything, and does it equally well.
The door is open, we're just waiting someone to step through.
What we need is an Open Source standard for connecting audio and video devices. That way every piece of gear would have a consistent interface and connections, and it would be easy to configure and understand.
Especially for people without specialized technical expertise.
If she has nothing to hide, what's the big deal. OK! I am so totally reassured now!
The law could use sharper teeth, but it's a natural and necessary progression of the movement to clamp down on those who find the need to constantly communicate more important than the safety of their fellow travelers."
Nonsense. There are already laws on the books which deal specifically with driver inattention. They have been there for some sixty or seventy years.
Why is it that anything involving a cel phone demands a special law prohibiting it? It's all feeling rather moralistic.
Tell you what, I'll let you ban cel phones in cars if you'll also ban coffee, donuts, makeup, radios, small children, pets, smoking, chewing tobacco, notepads, newspapers, and passengers, all of which can distract a driver.
Once every car contains only one hermetically sealed individual we should be 100% safe.
Sigh, are basic editorial skills too much to ask here? (I know, it's a rhetorical question).
TFA does not say that "the company found that nearly 1 in ten sites (or about 450,000) are loaded with malicious software." This implies that there are a total of less than a half million sites that pose a risk.
It said that of the 4.5 million pages examined, "about 450,000 were capable of launching so-called "drive-by downloads"..."
It also notes that "A further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user's computer, the team report."
The problem is probably quite a bit larger than presented in the summary, even if one ignores the confusion between "sites" and "pages".
I live in a right to work state, employers can fire people at any time for any reason...
Wow, I've never seen "Right Work" defined so simply before....
Anyhow, the norm in many jurisdictions is to give neither positive nor negative recommendations, only to confirm that a person had been employed, in what position, and for how long.
Although it's tempting to say "We'll only give a recommendation if it is positive, and say nothing if it's negative," you create a situation where not commenting implies that someone was a bad employee.
Better to remain neutral and say "We don't comment on past employees."
And if you're an ex-employee, ask a friend to call in for a recommendation and see what you get.
Retail theft of entertainment products, including video games, accounts for as much as $400 million in annual losses, according to the Entertainment Merchants Association.
I just love those numbers. I'm much more concerned about the estimated $120 million in lost productivity resulting from time spent dealing with broken shoelaces, and the estimated $275 million in annual losses to people who are shortchanged by hot dog vendors.
How about a moratorium on all numbers that were pulled out of a PR guy's ass?
Ok, so Florida is looney tunes. I'll grant you that. In most places though pawn shops, and a lot of general second hand stores, already require ID in order for you to sell them an item. That's hardly news. As for CDs, anyone who has run a college or community radio station will tell you that "missing" CDs are more than likely to show up at the local used record shop unless you've made a point of having a close relationship with them. CDs and DVDs are a favorite with petty thieves everywhere. Still, Florida is idiotic. Shame, since it looks so intelligent on CSI Miami...
I do not agree. Most companies make it far too difficult to make contact with a real living breathing person. A recent problem with Yahoo mail led to a string of three near identical robo-messages, all of which explained patiently how I should configure Internet Explorer to work best with their service.
Problem was I was using a Mac, which hasn't had IE since version 5.5. No way could I get robo-support to acknowledge that important detail.
Customer support is viewed as an expense, not an investment, and the less people who make it past brain dead on-line help schema, user forums, and hidden e-mail links the less has to be spent responding to them.
In any event, if you're selling a critical application like an Operating system then yes, I have every right to insist that it does what you say, in the manner that you say it will, and that you will disclose any known problems or dangers in a forthright fashion.
If I'm using freeware or open source products I gladly help out with bug reports and beta testing.
If, as is the case with most major software packages, I am being asked to pay several hundred dollars I expect that you should maintain a well trained staff whose job it is to find and fix problems. That's part of what I'm paying for.
Wait a minute - Dvorak says to blame the lawyers??
Oh my... I am so conflicted..... who do I complain about?
Oh, right - Microsoft!
I'd say that faxes are a disappearing technology. Last year I finally stopped maintaining a dedicated fax line. It had reached the point where I was receiving several junk faxes each week, and only one or two legitimate faxes each month.
Between e-mail and PDF it just wasn't cost effective anymore.
I now use the fax machine for outgoing once or twice a month, and if I really need to receive we just arrange a time when I'm sitting next to the machine and trigger it manually.
I'd agree though that if you're one of those businesses that still has to receive lots of faxes (and there are better technologies now days) then the PC based solution makes sense.
Can you even buy Winfax any more??
How about a Tag for: Boy oh boy I'm sure not going to waste my time reading the comments on this one!