If you're a cable installer, and someone "breaks" into your truck, you're responsible for the equipment inside. Current prices are (last time I checked):
- Modem $25 - Analog Box $7 - Digital Box $45 - PVR $175 - HDTV $125
and volia, you now "Own" some equipment. You've paid for them, they're yours to tinker with. Maybe I should start a website where you can buy the cable companie's pre-provisioned modems so you can get "free" High Speed Data Services until they cut them off......then again--maybe I won't.
Something that my Cable Company is getting ready to roll out is Pre-Paid cable Cards, so that people can use one Smart Card, or a series of Smart Cards, to control the cable in their house. What happens is that after the credits are used up on the smart card, the DCT (Digital Cable Tuner) blacks out all channels, and shows a "Please call your Operator" message, reminding the user to purchase more credits.
One positive side for this may be ala-carte pricing for the channels you want, that way you're not paying for fluff you don't want (like the High Def, Digital, Religious Channel), but for things you want (Digital Sci-Fi).
eWEEK: For its part though, SCO has said that there are so many lines of code, and a variety of applications and devices that use that code, that simply removing the offending code would not be technically feasible or possible and would not solve the problem. Do you agree?
This is the Same Ebay that will turn over your personal infomation (including financial stuff from Paypal) to law enforcement officals without a warrant. I belive we had a/. story on this a few months back. The trade magazine ST&D also had an article about this as well.
Damn, didn't catch the title of that. My bad.
( I was going to comment on what they told me at work, but opted against it in the end )
(damn slashdot making me wait two minutes before I can re-post again)
Anyone know of some good irc rooms for Futurama Discussion? I remember sitting in an irc room during the superbowl with a group of other 'educated' folks discussing what was happening with the game.
It'd be nice if there was something like that for Futurama as well...anyone know of one?
From what I know and understand about the way DCT's work, even if you could do something like this, you'd only have 24 hours to do it before it would reqired to be "hit" again, or, it'll CYCO out (Call your Cable Operator).
If you've got enough gumption, or enough free time, or enough money, anything can be done. I believe that the protocol is encrypted, and that the communications protocol is well kept.
Then again, I'm just a former HSD Technician, and I really don't know a whole lot about the DCT side of things.
I kinda find that a little bit hard to believe. I used to work for Time Warner cable as a High Speed Data installer, and I know that once a week the DCT (Digital Cable Tunter) guys had to chase "Non-Responder" tickets...boxes that had stopped talking to the head-end.
I do know that when you get a SA DCT, they come "golden" from the box--meaning, as long as your tv doesn't get "hit," you'll get all of the premium channels that they have, but not the pay per views. Once that box is hit, and you scan through a channel that you're not subscribed for, it'll call the head end to see if you've 'subscribed' to the channel, and will be polled regurally to see if you've ordered any Pay Per Views. (by the way, the stories about people putting filters and getting all the pay per views that they want, is false--the box only has about a $100 limit, and that filter basically puts the box on the Non-Responder List--meaning you'll have a tech out within a month to make sure everything's hunkey-dorey.) The reason that they won't take a $50 and leave your box un-hit is because it's still listed as on your truck until it's hit...and then the cable guy's responsible for the equipment...and they don't want to have to have that $500 box taken out of their paycheck;)
There are some companies out there that look for freelance computer geeks, such as the likes of: Support Freaks Geeks On Time And much more.
You've got to be VERY careful when you're working for these companies. Sometimes, you'll find out that they're either going to a) overwork you with little or no pay, or b) give you a completely different job than what you've bid on. Support Freaks in particular, they seem to be infamous for billing disputes and other oddities that don't get you paid. I've never really worked with geeks on time, however, I've had a friend who was dispatched to the wrong address, then was kicked out because he missed his appointment, when it was their fault. It's a tech beware market.
Welcome to Corporate America. No Matter what you do in their eyes, you're always Guilty until you're proved Innocent. Accused of lying? You're guilty until proven otherwise. Mistake on your credit report? Guilty until proven innocent.
Maybe the big corporations should take a lesson from the federal government and give people the small thought of innocence before they string them up to drive.
(Ok, I'm done ranting)
public knowledge that you could find a few rogue backhoe operators in Columbus, cut some copper and fiber on Compu$erve's network, and kill every credit card transaction in the US, as they all went through CS's network.
Ask anyone who's been a phone guy. We don't fear lusers, we don't fear over-zealot bosses, we fear backhoes.
I also have a real problem with classifying/patenting things that have been funded with educational dollars. OSU has patents on what their grad students have done for their Ph.D stuff, and I'm not sure I really like that. Those students were receiving government grants to fund their research, and now, the public is 'protected' by it...even though they paid for it.
Most telemarketers and outgoing call centers use what is known as a Progressive Dialer. Generally speaking, a Progressive Dialer uses ISDN. ISDN has this wonderful ability to have a "Data" channel, basically taking all of the information that would be considered "In band" (e.g., ringing, busy signal, SIT tones, etc) and placing it inside that data channel--so in theory, the ISDN 'channel' only hears voices...no dial tone, no busy signals, no SIT noise.
That ISDN line knows if your phone really is SIT'ed out, if it really is busy, or what the status of your line is, just by reading the information that your phone company's switch sends it.
I should also remind you that it's probably against your phone company's TOS to use SIT tones on your answering machine, however, YMMV.
This is just technical information, and I'm going from my limited experince as a Telephone Switch Operator for a campus that had a little under 3000 trunk lines. It may work for you, but, who knows...it may not.
I've read the comments and I hear people saying, "Use Wireless, it's less hassle," as well as networking horror stories.
Well, I've got about both. My first day on the job as a High-Speed Cable installer, I ran my drill through a power main. Knocked me on my ass, and I had to buy a new drill and pay to have the customers house re-wired. Not a fun experience. What did I learn? Look on both sides of the walls, and always ask the customer if they'd like their jack there.
In my 'house,' Each 'Data box' has 2 Cat5E, a fiber, 2 2-line phone jacks, and 2 Coax. I use this so I can provide a secure/DMZ, have the ability to upgrade, as well as send signals (e.g., videocams) to other devices in my house. The only reason that I use wireless is so I can use the occassional Free Access point that's floating about, and war-driving. My WAP in my house is on, however, it's on a seperate vlan, and no one really uses it.
Stay away from wireless--sure it's easy, but, do you really want your data out there for the world to see? For the effort that you use to run your wire and make sure the job is done right (e.g., use Mini-Com's from Panduit, make sure they're snapped down all the way, and make sure you've punched down everything/terminated your fiber right), you'll have the satisification that you've done a job right, and that your data is safe and secure.
I used to work for a company that did various telecommunications things, and selling/servicing Verizon's cell phones was one of them. Every month, there's a meeting in Columbus, where all the agents come in, and they talk about the month, as well as obstacles that they've had.
I remember one month, quite vividly, where the technical people came out and said that, "We've got the capabilities to compete with Direct Connect, however, it's not something that we're interested in."
I still find it very difficult to think that any of the cellular carriers will get off their collective, "I'm the king, try to push me off, this is how it's done" asses, but, hey...who knows.
Re:There always needs to be a balance
on
Gates and Security
·
· Score: 1
Now, this is probably a little bit off-topic as well, but...
Just about *anyone* can get the same pick set used by AAA, including the little "bar under glass thingie" that can be used to push the little power unlock button--thus disarming most factory-installed theft devices. I know this--I've got one sitting in the back of my car, and I'm nowhere near a cop (who also uses them--ever lock your baby in a car? Call a cop--they'll unlock your car) or anyone else who needs a set.
There's always room for "Evil," however, you need to find ways to reduce the amount of Evil or bad things that someone can do to or with your system. You "Jail" your processes, you limit database access by most users (for example, when I create web-based applications, there are two seperate sides, user and admin, and each user side has it's own database login, which can only do what it's needed to do, and the admin login can do a little more than what is needed, after it checks to see if you have the credentials to do it), and you try to keep yourself away from trouble in general. It all really depends on your programming tastes, style, and how much active thought you place into securing your data, your personell (only giving them the information they 'need to know' to do their job, as well as the RIGHT TOOLS to do their job), and your applications.
Sorry for ranting if I offended anyone--insomonia is making me a little grumpy.
To save you all some hassles when you're trying to figure out *why* you haven't gotten your emails...
Donotcall.gov has no MX records. No reverse DNS on any of their outbound mail boxes. And they obviously are not processing bounces/complaints/etc.
since nothing on that netblock has port 25 open.
(ever open a new book to find a funny sticker with metal in it?)
Actually, 95% of the time, those are Sensormatic Tags, that are suppossed to beep if you leave the store without paying for them. Most books themselves don't contain RFID's, however, since Sensormatic/Checkpoint tags are cheap (I've seen them as low as $125/1000 tags), retailers are spending ten or twelve cents per item plus the cost of the system in an effort to curb shoplifting.
There used to be something like this for residential long distance service--a company called FreeWay. You dialed a 1-800 number, and for every 15 second ad you listened to, it gave you one minute of 'talk' time to the number that you wanted to talk.
The last I heard of it, however, it went belly-up.
If AOL has any ties to Verisign, et al.? If it's using PKI (which it says it is), and the "About AIM Personal Certificates" page (Link Here) says it is (which really doesn't go into how they're implemented, or how you can get a certificate), who's to say that they're not going to charge you for getting a certificate? Yahoo integrated encryption in their Yahoo Messenger Enterprise, and other companies have done this in the past (I believe that even ICQ had a version of their server up so that companies could set their own ICQ servers up).
I honestly think it's all about the Money for AOL, and it's going to be prohibitive for Joe Sixpack to get this to work.
I have the Sprint Pocket PC CDMA phone from Toshbia, and I'm in their area where I can get their "Vision" services. I can stream mostly classical/digitally imported to my cell phone with no issue. It's stereo, I can play it back in stereo, or use it as my "Other XM" when I'm driving through the city. I can also stream videos from my server with no issues. I can ssh into boxes with no issues (aside from the lack of keyboard).
Although I hate sprint PCS with a passion, I will admit that the Service is ok...as I generally get the same speeds showing a full signal or a limited signal, and my phone makes it through a 10 hour workday plus a commute.
Yes, but something that isn't said is that when things like this happen at carwashes/laundromats, the first place that the police go to look are at the banks. The banks sometimes are the first people to know, and the tellers have a good memory about people coming in and dumping large amounts of change for them to cash over.
This actually happened to me once--I went to visit the significant other at work, and brought in my 'tub of change' to cash in. Well, there had been a lot of vandalism at a local car wash, and the next day I had a call from the local police department questioning the change. The police department was small enough that they knew that we were together, however, they have to question everyone as procedure.
My next goal: A coinstar machine, only without them coming to pick the change up...me keeping it. Any ideas? I'd like to have one in my place.
According to the Spouse (who works as a Bank Manager), for a bill to be cashed as a mutilated bill, it must have the security features still in it/visible...or you have to send it to the Fed.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually;
...then again--maybe I won't.
If you're a cable installer, and someone "breaks" into your truck, you're responsible for the equipment inside. Current prices are (last time I checked):
- Modem $25
- Analog Box $7
- Digital Box $45
- PVR $175
- HDTV $125
and volia, you now "Own" some equipment. You've paid for them, they're yours to tinker with. Maybe I should start a website where you can buy the cable companie's pre-provisioned modems so you can get "free" High Speed Data Services until they cut them off...
Something that my Cable Company is getting ready to roll out is Pre-Paid cable Cards, so that people can use one Smart Card, or a series of Smart Cards, to control the cable in their house. What happens is that after the credits are used up on the smart card, the DCT (Digital Cable Tuner) blacks out all channels, and shows a "Please call your Operator" message, reminding the user to purchase more credits.
One positive side for this may be ala-carte pricing for the channels you want, that way you're not paying for fluff you don't want (like the High Def, Digital, Religious Channel), but for things you want (Digital Sci-Fi).
or at least, that's how it was explained to me.
eWEEK: For its part though, SCO has said that there are so many lines of code, and a variety of applications and devices that use that code, that simply removing the offending code would not be technically feasible or possible and would not solve the problem. Do you agree?
Torvalds: They are smoking crack.
...This is the Same Ebay that will turn over your personal infomation (including financial stuff from Paypal) to law enforcement officals without a warrant. I belive we had a /. story on this a few months back. The trade magazine ST&D also had an article about this as well.
Damn, didn't catch the title of that. My bad. ( I was going to comment on what they told me at work, but opted against it in the end ) (damn slashdot making me wait two minutes before I can re-post again)
I'm kinda laughing now, because CNN was reporing that this might have been caused by the latest Microsoft Security flaw.
It's not every day that you could start to blame Micro$oft for a national meltdown of the power grid.
BTW, Mods, this is a ha, ha, funny, if anything.
Anyone know of some good irc rooms for Futurama Discussion? I remember sitting in an irc room during the superbowl with a group of other 'educated' folks discussing what was happening with the game.
It'd be nice if there was something like that for Futurama as well...anyone know of one?
From what I know and understand about the way DCT's work, even if you could do something like this, you'd only have 24 hours to do it before it would reqired to be "hit" again, or, it'll CYCO out (Call your Cable Operator). If you've got enough gumption, or enough free time, or enough money, anything can be done. I believe that the protocol is encrypted, and that the communications protocol is well kept. Then again, I'm just a former HSD Technician, and I really don't know a whole lot about the DCT side of things.
I kinda find that a little bit hard to believe. I used to work for Time Warner cable as a High Speed Data installer, and I know that once a week the DCT (Digital Cable Tunter) guys had to chase "Non-Responder" tickets...boxes that had stopped talking to the head-end.
;)
I do know that when you get a SA DCT, they come "golden" from the box--meaning, as long as your tv doesn't get "hit," you'll get all of the premium channels that they have, but not the pay per views. Once that box is hit, and you scan through a channel that you're not subscribed for, it'll call the head end to see if you've 'subscribed' to the channel, and will be polled regurally to see if you've ordered any Pay Per Views. (by the way, the stories about people putting filters and getting all the pay per views that they want, is false--the box only has about a $100 limit, and that filter basically puts the box on the Non-Responder List--meaning you'll have a tech out within a month to make sure everything's hunkey-dorey.) The reason that they won't take a $50 and leave your box un-hit is because it's still listed as on your truck until it's hit...and then the cable guy's responsible for the equipment...and they don't want to have to have that $500 box taken out of their paycheck
There are some companies out there that look for freelance computer geeks, such as the likes of:
Support Freaks
Geeks On Time
And much more.
You've got to be VERY careful when you're working for these companies. Sometimes, you'll find out that they're either going to a) overwork you with little or no pay, or b) give you a completely different job than what you've bid on. Support Freaks in particular, they seem to be infamous for billing disputes and other oddities that don't get you paid. I've never really worked with geeks on time, however, I've had a friend who was dispatched to the wrong address, then was kicked out because he missed his appointment, when it was their fault. It's a tech beware market.
Welcome to Corporate America. No Matter what you do in their eyes, you're always Guilty until you're proved Innocent. Accused of lying? You're guilty until proven otherwise. Mistake on your credit report? Guilty until proven innocent. Maybe the big corporations should take a lesson from the federal government and give people the small thought of innocence before they string them up to drive. (Ok, I'm done ranting)
Oh yeah, this is so true!
public knowledge that you could find a few rogue backhoe operators in Columbus, cut some copper and fiber on Compu$erve's network, and kill every credit card transaction in the US, as they all went through CS's network.
Ask anyone who's been a phone guy. We don't fear lusers, we don't fear over-zealot bosses, we fear backhoes.
I also have a real problem with classifying/patenting things that have been funded with educational dollars. OSU has patents on what their grad students have done for their Ph.D stuff, and I'm not sure I really like that. Those students were receiving government grants to fund their research, and now, the public is 'protected' by it...even though they paid for it.
Uh huh.
It works?
Most telemarketers and outgoing call centers use what is known as a Progressive Dialer. Generally speaking, a Progressive Dialer uses ISDN. ISDN has this wonderful ability to have a "Data" channel, basically taking all of the information that would be considered "In band" (e.g., ringing, busy signal, SIT tones, etc) and placing it inside that data channel--so in theory, the ISDN 'channel' only hears voices...no dial tone, no busy signals, no SIT noise.
That ISDN line knows if your phone really is SIT'ed out, if it really is busy, or what the status of your line is, just by reading the information that your phone company's switch sends it.
I should also remind you that it's probably against your phone company's TOS to use SIT tones on your answering machine, however, YMMV.
This is just technical information, and I'm going from my limited experince as a Telephone Switch Operator for a campus that had a little under 3000 trunk lines. It may work for you, but, who knows...it may not.
I've read the comments and I hear people saying, "Use Wireless, it's less hassle," as well as networking horror stories.
Well, I've got about both. My first day on the job as a High-Speed Cable installer, I ran my drill through a power main. Knocked me on my ass, and I had to buy a new drill and pay to have the customers house re-wired. Not a fun experience. What did I learn? Look on both sides of the walls, and always ask the customer if they'd like their jack there.
In my 'house,' Each 'Data box' has 2 Cat5E, a fiber, 2 2-line phone jacks, and 2 Coax. I use this so I can provide a secure/DMZ, have the ability to upgrade, as well as send signals (e.g., videocams) to other devices in my house. The only reason that I use wireless is so I can use the occassional Free Access point that's floating about, and war-driving. My WAP in my house is on, however, it's on a seperate vlan, and no one really uses it.
Stay away from wireless--sure it's easy, but, do you really want your data out there for the world to see? For the effort that you use to run your wire and make sure the job is done right (e.g., use Mini-Com's from Panduit, make sure they're snapped down all the way, and make sure you've punched down everything/terminated your fiber right), you'll have the satisification that you've done a job right, and that your data is safe and secure.
I remember one month, quite vividly, where the technical people came out and said that, "We've got the capabilities to compete with Direct Connect, however, it's not something that we're interested in."
I still find it very difficult to think that any of the cellular carriers will get off their collective, "I'm the king, try to push me off, this is how it's done" asses, but, hey...who knows.
Yeah, Seriously...it's for Real.
Just about *anyone* can get the same pick set used by AAA, including the little "bar under glass thingie" that can be used to push the little power unlock button--thus disarming most factory-installed theft devices. I know this--I've got one sitting in the back of my car, and I'm nowhere near a cop (who also uses them--ever lock your baby in a car? Call a cop--they'll unlock your car) or anyone else who needs a set.
There's always room for "Evil," however, you need to find ways to reduce the amount of Evil or bad things that someone can do to or with your system. You "Jail" your processes, you limit database access by most users (for example, when I create web-based applications, there are two seperate sides, user and admin, and each user side has it's own database login, which can only do what it's needed to do, and the admin login can do a little more than what is needed, after it checks to see if you have the credentials to do it), and you try to keep yourself away from trouble in general. It all really depends on your programming tastes, style, and how much active thought you place into securing your data, your personell (only giving them the information they 'need to know' to do their job, as well as the RIGHT TOOLS to do their job), and your applications.
Sorry for ranting if I offended anyone--insomonia is making me a little grumpy.
To save you all some hassles when you're trying to figure out *why* you haven't gotten your emails...
Donotcall.gov has no MX records. No reverse DNS on any of their outbound mail boxes. And they obviously are not processing bounces/complaints/etc. since nothing on that netblock has port 25 open.
It's really sad because one of the guys from AT&T Government services posted in NANOG this week looking for advice on getting his emails through.
Actually, 95% of the time, those are Sensormatic Tags, that are suppossed to beep if you leave the store without paying for them. Most books themselves don't contain RFID's, however, since Sensormatic/Checkpoint tags are cheap (I've seen them as low as $125/1000 tags), retailers are spending ten or twelve cents per item plus the cost of the system in an effort to curb shoplifting.
There used to be something like this for residential long distance service--a company called FreeWay. You dialed a 1-800 number, and for every 15 second ad you listened to, it gave you one minute of 'talk' time to the number that you wanted to talk.
The last I heard of it, however, it went belly-up.
If AOL has any ties to Verisign, et al.? If it's using PKI (which it says it is), and the "About AIM Personal Certificates" page (Link Here) says it is (which really doesn't go into how they're implemented, or how you can get a certificate), who's to say that they're not going to charge you for getting a certificate? Yahoo integrated encryption in their Yahoo Messenger Enterprise, and other companies have done this in the past (I believe that even ICQ had a version of their server up so that companies could set their own ICQ servers up).
I honestly think it's all about the Money for AOL, and it's going to be prohibitive for Joe Sixpack to get this to work.
I have the Sprint Pocket PC CDMA phone from Toshbia, and I'm in their area where I can get their "Vision" services. I can stream mostly classical/digitally imported to my cell phone with no issue. It's stereo, I can play it back in stereo, or use it as my "Other XM" when I'm driving through the city. I can also stream videos from my server with no issues. I can ssh into boxes with no issues (aside from the lack of keyboard).
Although I hate sprint PCS with a passion, I will admit that the Service is ok...as I generally get the same speeds showing a full signal or a limited signal, and my phone makes it through a 10 hour workday plus a commute.
Yes, but something that isn't said is that when things like this happen at carwashes/laundromats, the first place that the police go to look are at the banks. The banks sometimes are the first people to know, and the tellers have a good memory about people coming in and dumping large amounts of change for them to cash over.
This actually happened to me once--I went to visit the significant other at work, and brought in my 'tub of change' to cash in. Well, there had been a lot of vandalism at a local car wash, and the next day I had a call from the local police department questioning the change. The police department was small enough that they knew that we were together, however, they have to question everyone as procedure.
My next goal: A coinstar machine, only without them coming to pick the change up...me keeping it. Any ideas? I'd like to have one in my place.
According to the Spouse (who works as a Bank Manager), for a bill to be cashed as a mutilated bill, it must have the security features still in it/visible...or you have to send it to the Fed.