Seriously, though, has anybody considered how easy it would be to data mine the output from credit cards or supermarket loyalty cards etc. to identify gullible people?
You don't have to data mine, you just have to troll. The bait is silly money making offers. I attended one of those home business conference/sales pitch thingys a while back, stupidly signed up for a couple of them and in addition to wasting money on stupid businesses I got a barage of emails offering more stupid business ideas.
Once they hook a sucker they put him on the sucker list and sell it to others.
The $90,000 per head figure is really tough to buy.
That's the reported figure. I'm guessing there's a threshold between shame and desperate hope that you may get your money back. If I lost GBP 7,000 I might realize that there's very little hope of recovering my money for the risk of embarrassment I'd get for reporting it. If I lost $150,000 I might throw ego out the window and hope to God and the government that someone can get my money back; I might even think that the large amount lost makes my loss more important for others to pay attention to.
I didn't see a reference to American numbers in this article. However I expect the American number to be higher.
What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that part of the appeal of the scam is that the plot to transfer the money leads to a situation where the supposed outside helper can walk away with the entire bankroll instead of just the helper's fee and the supposed owner of the money can't do anything about it because they're stuck in their country or otherwise unable to pursue you for it.
Not all of the people who fall for this scam are going for the full take, but I expect many are.
I was going to say that I think more Americans are more likely to go for the scam, but come to think of it I don't know the Brits very well and can't make that comparison. But it is my impression the scam aims at more well-to-do people and that there are more well-to-do suckers in the US than GB.
I meun, hoo doomb du yuoo theenk ve-a ere-a? I checked zee seete-a, und zeere's nut a "bork bork bork" unyvhere-a!
Translation courtesy of The Dialectizer". For effect, here's the Slashdot summary:
Zee Next Lefel ooff X-Bux Muddeeng Herdvere Pusted by CmdrTecu oon Tooe-a Feb 25, '03 08:04 EM frum zee noo-veeet-a-meenoote-a dept.
Um de hur de hur de hur. neekitin2k vreetes "A svedeesh gooy deed a reelly sveet xbux mud. Bork bork bork! He-a mufed zee vhule-a theeng intu un eloomeenioom chessees, chunged zee dfd und hdd, instelled a mud-cheep, vureless lun, leds, sveetches und Leenoox. Meet zee xXx-bux. Zee seete-a is in svedeesh, boot zee peecs speek fur zeemselfes. Um gesh dee bork, bork! Luts ooff peectoores here-a" I gutt esk thu, et vhet pueent vuoold it hefe-a mede-a mure-a sense-a joost tu booy a regooler cumpooter? Zee greee leeghting is a neece-a tuooch thu.
Has anyone started such a project yet? My main selfish interest is in defragging the MFT, and as far as I see only pay-per-machine utilities exist for that when all I want is a utility disk to pop in each machine and defrag the MFT when it becomes necessary.
I have a few high user PCs that bump the MFT into tens of fragments. That kills performance.
Re:What's so great about this?
on
New Dual System PC
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Hmm, I wonder if I could get on the front page if I posted some photos on the web?
First you'd have to add neon lighting or make them into a Beowulf cluster.
...when boss/parent/spouse walks in,push a button & pretend you are working...
Damn, you work with your parents and your spouse? Sounds like a mess to me. I'd look for another job!
My boss is in another state 900 miles away. So are my parents and my ex spousal candidates. I highly recommend this arrangement, although it's hard to get all of them to move so I had to, but other than that it's been great.
I can't find the price. Anyone know the price on that and if it would be useful to run OSX on a PC? Or perhaps a Linux host running separate from the PC?
Probably the only big issue the article missed was that most download services, even if they had the music, are too complicated, the download formats too confusing. Furthermore, they tend to target people who currently get music for free rather than cosumers who pay for music.
That part of the post needs to be modded to +10. Non geeks are willing--even eager--to pay for things but will shun free things that are difficult to use. And people already getting the music free from p2p shun the added restrictions (not necessarily the cost, mind you) of the paid downloads.
Case in point is Linux. I've seen lesser- or non-geeks buy Suse or RedHat when I told them they can download it for free legally. The RedHat buyer ordered online and had to wait longer than a download to receive it. Yes they get the box and manuals, but you can make a correlation to the CD case and cover art.
Side rant: CDs and DVDs are WAY too freakin' hard to open when you buy them! Give us a break, it ain't a narcotic! And then several coupons/ads fall out as if it's a magazine. I broke a CD once getting it off its packaged spindle, although it was an MS trial copy of Office XP and not a music CD. </rant>
I can't remember the last time I bought a music CD now. I swore to never buy a CD based on one or two liked songs because I found out the rest of the songs usually suck, and $5-$15 per song is too much to pay! And I haven't liked more than one or two songs on a CD since. And radio sucks, too. Radio is what used to make me buy new CDs, but now I listen to 80's and classic rock stations because the new music generally sucks and I already own the 80's and classic rock stuff I want. (I only listen to radio in the car, and mp3's at home and work; when I finally get mp3 in my car, then it's goodbye, radio.)
By the way, before p2p and mp3 if I didn't want to buy an album but liked a song I'd record it to cassette from the radio. I don't think mp3 has affected my CD buying habits much, if at all.
I can only see this laptop as being a nightmare for anyone who isn't technically experienced. Imagine some middle-aged couple trying to get an Internet connection, for example, or to get their USB printer to work.
I was thinking the other way around. Compared to OS X and Windows laptops, this is true, but compared to other Linux-on-laptop solutions this is probably one of the technically easier ones. No usegroup postings asking how to get XX hardware on your laptop to work under Linux.
Are there any other Linux distributions that configure towards a specific laptop design? Or just the shops that strip Widows and install Linux. I'm assuming the former has the potential for better support, but maybe I'm wrong.
The built in mouse has but one button, so you must ctrl->click to do a right click...that is annoying as heck. So, purchase an external mouse whatever you do.
The "mouse" is a touchpad, isn't it? Many PC touchpad drivers have a feature that tapping in the upper-right corner is a right click. Hasn't somebody made such a driver for Macs or for Linux on Mac?
(Say, don't you thing that Green Camoflague is a bit inneffecting in an urban combat environment, like an Airport?)
Since you didn't notice the guards wearing the more effective camouflage I'd say it works well.
The green camouflage guys are supposed to be seen. I'd be surprised if their assault rifles are loaded; who would they shoot? Each bullet could go through several people and a couple of walls. Not a very good weapon for a small party of bad guys in a friendly crowd.
They are to make travelers feel comfortable--or at least protected--and possibly to distract "the baddies" from the real guards watching them from every direction.
I second that. I had a Win2k drive that failed to boot. I put it in another Win2k box, and at first it could read it then it suddenly quit working. I couldn't get it to work, but Linux read it with no problems. I used sshd/WinSCP to get the data off of it. It's pretty sad that Linux can read NTFS better than Windows.
I've used KNOPPIX for that, but in this case I think I had stuck the drive into a Debian toy box I had lying around.
SCP is very cool, but the encryption/decryption eats up processor time. If you're offering 1-6MB files to many users you could probably choke a machine pretty quickly.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously, though, has anybody considered how easy it would be to data mine the output from credit cards or supermarket loyalty cards etc. to identify gullible people?
You don't have to data mine, you just have to troll. The bait is silly money making offers. I attended one of those home business conference/sales pitch thingys a while back, stupidly signed up for a couple of them and in addition to wasting money on stupid businesses I got a barage of emails offering more stupid business ideas.
Once they hook a sucker they put him on the sucker list and sell it to others.
The $90,000 per head figure is really tough to buy.
That's the reported figure. I'm guessing there's a threshold between shame and desperate hope that you may get your money back. If I lost GBP 7,000 I might realize that there's very little hope of recovering my money for the risk of embarrassment I'd get for reporting it. If I lost $150,000 I might throw ego out the window and hope to God and the government that someone can get my money back; I might even think that the large amount lost makes my loss more important for others to pay attention to.
I didn't see a reference to American numbers in this article. However I expect the American number to be higher.
What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that part of the appeal of the scam is that the plot to transfer the money leads to a situation where the supposed outside helper can walk away with the entire bankroll instead of just the helper's fee and the supposed owner of the money can't do anything about it because they're stuck in their country or otherwise unable to pursue you for it.
Not all of the people who fall for this scam are going for the full take, but I expect many are.
I was going to say that I think more Americans are more likely to go for the scam, but come to think of it I don't know the Brits very well and can't make that comparison. But it is my impression the scam aims at more well-to-do people and that there are more well-to-do suckers in the US than GB.
Thank God! I'll finally be able to have a decent car air conditioner again!
Either way... (loading double-barreled shotgun)
(credit to Dilbert/Scott Adams)
Let's face it. If you are doing anything at all productive in society somebody can use that to their benifit in a way that you may not agree with.
True. This is exactly why I produce as little as possible and consume as much as possible. It's my Msixram philosophy.
(reverse Marxism)
("Break your satellite? Need new parts? Just order on the universe wide web at uww.spaceparts.com!")
:-) Unfortunately the latency for the nearest root DNS server is 217 years.
Probably more like uww.spaceparts.co.tx.us.sol.arm17.milkyway .
I meun, hoo doomb du yuoo theenk ve-a ere-a? I checked zee seete-a, und zeere's nut a "bork bork bork" unyvhere-a!
Translation courtesy of The Dialectizer". For effect, here's the Slashdot summary:
Zee Next Lefel ooff X-Bux Muddeeng Herdvere
Pusted by CmdrTecu oon Tooe-a Feb 25, '03 08:04 EM
frum zee noo-veeet-a-meenoote-a dept.
Um de hur de hur de hur. neekitin2k vreetes "A svedeesh gooy deed a reelly sveet xbux mud. Bork bork bork! He-a mufed zee vhule-a theeng intu un eloomeenioom chessees, chunged zee dfd und hdd, instelled a mud-cheep, vureless lun, leds, sveetches und Leenoox. Meet zee xXx-bux. Zee seete-a is in svedeesh, boot zee peecs speek fur zeemselfes. Um gesh dee bork, bork! Luts ooff peectoores here-a" I gutt esk thu, et vhet pueent vuoold it hefe-a mede-a mure-a sense-a joost tu booy a regooler cumpooter? Zee greee leeghting is a neece-a tuooch thu.
"Dude!" hehhehe. uhuhuhuh. That's funny. I used to say that on TV.
Man, I'm so wasted.
Now let me tell you about my what my late-1970s VCR could do that modern ones can't...
Flash 12:00 in brighter blue?
Um, frites (=``French fries'') are Belgian, not French.
:-)
I know they aren't French; that was part of my lame joke.
"Mandrake is the ONLY good thing ever to come from France."
I assume from this statement that you don't drink wine, and don't eat at all.
Mmmmmmmmm. Fries.
Note that the resizer cannot defrag, yet...
Has anyone started such a project yet? My main selfish interest is in defragging the MFT, and as far as I see only pay-per-machine utilities exist for that when all I want is a utility disk to pop in each machine and defrag the MFT when it becomes necessary.
I have a few high user PCs that bump the MFT into tens of fragments. That kills performance.
Hmm, I wonder if I could get on the front page if I posted some photos on the web?
First you'd have to add neon lighting or make them into a Beowulf cluster.
...when boss/parent/spouse walks in,push a button & pretend you are working...
Damn, you work with your parents and your spouse? Sounds like a mess to me. I'd look for another job!
My boss is in another state 900 miles away. So are my parents and my ex spousal candidates. I highly recommend this arrangement, although it's hard to get all of them to move so I had to, but other than that it's been great.
You can buy this PowerPC on a card.
I can't find the price. Anyone know the price on that and if it would be useful to run OSX on a PC? Or perhaps a Linux host running separate from the PC?
Probably the only big issue the article missed was that most download services, even if they had the music, are too complicated, the download formats too confusing. Furthermore, they tend to target people who currently get music for free rather than cosumers who pay for music.
That part of the post needs to be modded to +10. Non geeks are willing--even eager--to pay for things but will shun free things that are difficult to use. And people already getting the music free from p2p shun the added restrictions (not necessarily the cost, mind you) of the paid downloads.
Case in point is Linux. I've seen lesser- or non-geeks buy Suse or RedHat when I told them they can download it for free legally. The RedHat buyer ordered online and had to wait longer than a download to receive it. Yes they get the box and manuals, but you can make a correlation to the CD case and cover art.
Side rant: CDs and DVDs are WAY too freakin' hard to open when you buy them! Give us a break, it ain't a narcotic! And then several coupons/ads fall out as if it's a magazine. I broke a CD once getting it off its packaged spindle, although it was an MS trial copy of Office XP and not a music CD. </rant>
I can't remember the last time I bought a music CD now. I swore to never buy a CD based on one or two liked songs because I found out the rest of the songs usually suck, and $5-$15 per song is too much to pay! And I haven't liked more than one or two songs on a CD since. And radio sucks, too. Radio is what used to make me buy new CDs, but now I listen to 80's and classic rock stations because the new music generally sucks and I already own the 80's and classic rock stuff I want. (I only listen to radio in the car, and mp3's at home and work; when I finally get mp3 in my car, then it's goodbye, radio.)
By the way, before p2p and mp3 if I didn't want to buy an album but liked a song I'd record it to cassette from the radio. I don't think mp3 has affected my CD buying habits much, if at all.
errrr...., how do you know? I run a number of BSD servers at NASA.
Yeah, and look how that turned out.
(In bad taste, but intended as a joke.)
I can only see this laptop as being a nightmare for anyone who isn't technically experienced. Imagine some middle-aged couple trying to get an Internet connection, for example, or to get their USB printer to work.
I was thinking the other way around. Compared to OS X and Windows laptops, this is true, but compared to other Linux-on-laptop solutions this is probably one of the technically easier ones. No usegroup postings asking how to get XX hardware on your laptop to work under Linux.
Are there any other Linux distributions that configure towards a specific laptop design? Or just the shops that strip Widows and install Linux. I'm assuming the former has the potential for better support, but maybe I'm wrong.
It needs a catchy name! How about "Lapenguin"? (get it, lap+penguin, Ok, you try...)
Penix?
The built in mouse has but one button, so you must ctrl->click to do a right click...that is annoying as heck. So, purchase an external mouse whatever you do.
The "mouse" is a touchpad, isn't it? Many PC touchpad drivers have a feature that tapping in the upper-right corner is a right click. Hasn't somebody made such a driver for Macs or for Linux on Mac?
I don't own a Mac or Powerbook, but I wish I did.
(Say, don't you thing that Green Camoflague is a bit inneffecting in an urban combat environment, like an Airport?)
Since you didn't notice the guards wearing the more effective camouflage I'd say it works well.
The green camouflage guys are supposed to be seen. I'd be surprised if their assault rifles are loaded; who would they shoot? Each bullet could go through several people and a couple of walls. Not a very good weapon for a small party of bad guys in a friendly crowd.
They are to make travelers feel comfortable--or at least protected--and possibly to distract "the baddies" from the real guards watching them from every direction.
I second that. I had a Win2k drive that failed to boot. I put it in another Win2k box, and at first it could read it then it suddenly quit working. I couldn't get it to work, but Linux read it with no problems. I used sshd/WinSCP to get the data off of it. It's pretty sad that Linux can read NTFS better than Windows.
I've used KNOPPIX for that, but in this case I think I had stuck the drive into a Debian toy box I had lying around.
SCP is very cool, but the encryption/decryption eats up processor time. If you're offering 1-6MB files to many users you could probably choke a machine pretty quickly.
There is a slight chance that the output from /dev/random will be identical to the original message.
Well, of course. If the breaker knows the message won't resolve to itself then that lessens the entropy and makes breaking the encryption easier!