Re:Social engineering more than phreaking
on
Phreaking Not Dead Yet
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· Score: 2, Insightful
this is more social engineering scam than phreaking.
No, the article says that people are attacking the system with the default password that SBC sets when the voicemail is installed.
AT&T doesn't seem concerned because they are still charging people for the calls. (Gee, a 30% discount on a $10,000 phone call that a person did not make, how generous -sic.)
SBC probably doesn't care because it makes their competitor (or future competitor depending on your state), AT&T, look bad to consumers when they try to collect the bill.
Ok, yes its a fake. But lets imagine for a second that it is true.
If it is true we should take the deal he offered, Give us Osama, Cure AIDS, and let him walk.
Now if it is really true the guy would be an idiotic PHB. After all, He could claim the $25 million reward from the FBI, use the money to develop a cure for AIDS and make billions selling the drugs he developed. No one would ever know he is from the future or arrest him for insider trading.
From a different thread: Games Workshop has always been way over priced...
I do not know about miniatures, but I know wholesalers sell CD's at 50% of retail ($18 cd = $9 profit for the retailer) and I know software wholesalers sell at 54% lower than retail to large clients. ($60 software = $32.40 profit)
If miniatures are similarly priced, you do not need to sell many before you pay your rent and your minimum wage workers.
Web sites can have a much larger client base because of the reach of the internet. They can be located almost anywhere so rent can be much lower. They only need to pay working employees (they don't have to pay someone to watch the store when there are not any customers.) All of this allows them to sell at a much lower price then a mall store which kills
In my office the just did a new "Print2000" deployment. They removed all of the old printers from the office (no one is allowed to have a printer in their cube now) and replaced everything with high end Lexmark Printers. Of the 6 printers closest to my cube, 2 have already broken down and are unusable. This is pathetic; I know what brand I won't buy.
I don't think that this will happen. I use my PDA as an extension to my computer. Its something that carries the information I want access to when I am away from my computer. A PDA is nothing more than a glorified address book without a PC.
Here is why it won't work:
A PDA's screen is terrible for web browsing because of its size.
It is easier to use a full size keyboard to enter any significant amount of data.
If you can't charge it when required it is possible to lose data. (this happened to me once when I forgot the charger on vacation)
Its small size makes it easy to steal and if you don't have a pc you won't have a backup for your data.
A PDA is best used as an extension for your computer, it is not a replacement for your PC.
Who cares? I design and write software and have been employed by a few different large companies. I have had the following titles at one point or another: Junior Programmer, Programmer, Programmer/Analyst, Member (yes, that was my official title thanks to AT&T), Senior Technical Associate Level II (which was abbreviated to Sr. Technical Ass. on my id at Comdex, a keeper!!), Technical Staff Member, Computer Scientist, Software Engineer, and Consultant. It didn't matter what title I had, I still designed and wrote software. (which means I'm an artist.)
If you say that a title conveys a higher level of achievement on someone, I would say BULL; I have seen clueless people at all levels.
If some idiot in a state assembly says that engineers need to be certified so they can be held responsible for their creations; he is off his rocker. In our sue-happy society a piece of paper is not going to save someone's ass if they screw-up.
The problem with this whole "exporting work" argument is that, the vast majority of the time, the foreign workers simply aren't as good at it, or even close. I'm sorry, I'm no racist, but this is simply the way things are.
No, you are completely wrong with that. Just like here in the US there are good programmers and there are bad programmers. I work with some Indian programmers here and one in particular is very bright. Another one I work with is an idiot that doesn't know whats going on half the time. (Ironically the smart one became a citizen, the idiot is H1B.)
One thing that companies need to realize is that you get what you pay for. My previous job was off-shored to India. The reason that we were given was purely financial. We were told that it costs $90/hr for a programmer here including all overhead (this includes supervisor costs and facilities). By comparison, they told us a developer in India costs $30/hr. One of the first assignments given to the Indian group was an easy maintenance update, I could have done it in 8 hours, a Jr. Programmer new to the group might need 16 hrs to do the same job, the Indian group billed 128 hrs split by 3 people for the change. Lets recap: Me $720; JP $1,440; Indian group $3,840. However, I am sure that the upper levels are assuming that it would have taken the same amount of time and cost $11,520.
Participants who connect to YouPlayGames' servers to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein will be required to have the latest version of Even Balance's PunkBuster Anti-Cheat software on their systems in order to compete.
The problem is in time Microsoft may require functional changes in the way the hardware behaves, either to force DRM at that level, or worse, to sabotage the ability of BSD and Linux to use the hardware at the same capability.
Don't forget about Microsoft getting more money from developers and manufacuters. I have only installed one Non-Certified device driver on Win2000(My company's Laptop). It was a freeware PPPoE driver. The author wrote in the install notes the reason why it wasn't certified was because he couldn't afford to pay M$ for the certification.
They don't know what they are talking about...
on
Top Ten Dying Game Genres
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Just because there is no major software company developing these games or the fact that no one makes these games for M$'s X-box, PS/2, or Game Cube does not mean they are dead and dying. As long as people enjoy playing them they will live.
Maybe they will predict that NetHack will die as well.
These games are just being published by smaller developers. The ones that can't afford the extraordinate fees to buy a chip so that there programs work on the consoles. These games are usually more affordable as well.
Faxes Cost more then email, ink, paper, wear-n-tear and people can't recieve faxes while one is incoming. I hope this can be applied to spam, but the costs are much lower, and email can be downloaded much faster.
Actually, when my mail client downloads mail it does it one at a time(admittedly it is a lot faster than a fax). It is not unusual to get up to 50 spam messages a day and assuming 10K each that is 1/2MB. If you can't get Cable or DSL that can take a few minutes, and I pitty the person on dial-up that goes on vacation only to come home and download Spam for a half-hour.
The challenge for those in the states is to demonstrate their value, and show that they can differentiate themselves from the folks who can/or are forced to work for $1-$5 per hour.The challenge for those in the states is to demonstrate their value, and show that they can differentiate themselves from the folks who can/or are forced to work for $1-$5 per hour.
This is easier said then done. I had a job that was "off-shored". The reason that we were given was purely financial. We were told that it costs $90/hr for a programmer here including all overhead (this includes supervisor costs and facilities). By comparison, they told us a developer in India costs $30/hr.
I stayed in contact with what was left of my co-workers (now known as knowledge transfer associates); One of the first assignments given to the Indian group was an easy maintenance update, I could have done it in 8 hours, a Jr. Programmer new to the group might need 16 hrs to do the same job, the Indian group billed 128 hrs split by 3 people for the change. Lets recap: Me $720; JP $1,440; Indian group $3,840. However, I am sure that the upper levels are assuming that it would have taken the same amount of time and cost $11,520.
Executives need to learn that you get what you pay for. You don't get quality work for the lowest price.
From the article: "John Malcolm, a Justice Department official who oversees the computer crime division, warned the panel about the connections between copyright piracy and terrorism.
"Organized crime syndicates are frequently engaged in many types of illicit enterprises, including supporting terrorist activities," Malcolm said.
The shocker about that statement is that Valenti would have love to have made that comment and Gates wants everyone to believe it.
Dead tree editions are good if you have nothing better to read while sitting on the throne(or loo). They are also indispensible if you are having problems with your PC and can't connect to the internet to read the documentation online. Paper can also be better if it is well indexed because it can be easier to find a certain page than trying to page up/down each screen looking for the information that you need.
However, the biggest problem with paper will never be solved; by the time it is published, distributed, and sold it is out of date. If you need to look up the most recent information, online is the only way to go.
Terry Goodkind writes a phenomenal story. By reading his books I can tell that he has a warped and twisted mind. (which is why I like him.) He has such a good attention to detail that I wouldn't want any children of mine reading his books until 18 because of the content.
Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth, Book 1)
Stone of Tears (Sword of Truth, Book 2)
Blood of the Fold (Sword of Truth, Book 3)
Temple of the Winds (Sword of Truth, Book 4)
Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth, Book 5)
Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth, Book 6)
The Pillars of Creation
As for my other tastes in Fantasy:
I enjoy most books by R.A.Salvatore
Wiess and Hickman are hit an miss with me: I did not like the first Dragonlance trilogy, but I loved The Brothers Majere trilogy. I also enjoyed their Death Gate Cycle which was a seven book series. However most of their other work never interested me.
Actually, I think only about 5% of the people are Assholes, 93% are just morons that don't know any better. It makes it tough on the remaining 2%, but we lose all hope if we stoop to their level.
I remember reading an article written late in 1999 that pointed out that 60% of all code at that time was written on a mainframe and 80% of all data was processed on a mainframe. With an installed base that large it is going to be a long time before the mainframe ever dies. Also, when the "Y2K problem" was being resolved and many companies had to rewrite old software they had an opportunity to move their applications off of the mainframe. As far as I know the majority were re-written on the mainframe, each application that stayed on a mainframe was a vote of confidence for the platform.
The power of a mainframe is a second reason. I am a developer that works about 75% of the time on the mainframe and about 25% of the time on Client/server applications. I suupport an application that starts with a 52 Gigabyte file on a mainframe, sorts the data, and reformats it down to an 8.5 Gigabyte file that is then sent to an UNIX server for for further processing. When I sort the file on the mainframe it takes about 1.5 hours, when the smaller file is later sorted on the server it takes 6 hours. That is a big difference especially when you consider that the mainframes is usually doing many other things at the same time.
Another huge difference is support. When something fails on a mainframe someone is always responsible. A few years ago I was having problems with a mainframe program crashing. (just the program crashed, it did not take down the system) The problem was eventually escalated to IBM's technical support who took care of it until it was resolved. Too many times on PC's/Servers the application programmers blame the middleware company, the middleware company blames the OS vendor, the OS vendor blames the application programmers. When a business's system is not working like it should they want it fixed. They do not want to be caught up in the middle of a vicious circle of the blame game. This fact that the vendors actually have accountability for their products also makes the mainframe more reliable in the long run.
Fitting into the palm of a hand, FlatStack can remain mostly unseen and does not take up space in the home. The Microsoft/HP system, on the other hand, is relatively large and obtrusive in comparison, though it does offer some bells and whistles not offered by FlatStack.
What are the Microsoft bells and whistles? BSOD, the ability to tell Microsoft who raids the fridge in th middle of the night, also who watches the p0rn channels.
The spammers do not have the technical knowledge to spam if it wasn't for programmers making it easy for them. Does someone know where the Romanian programmers live? Lets go after them, or use their own software against them. I doubt they would continue to sell it if they were on the receiving end of the Spam. (not to mention it would be hard to work if network popups interrupted you ever 2 seconds.)
A Different option... If a fire takes out Ralsky's server and he doesn't have an offsite backup...
When someone makes a "reliable, transparent converter" Microsoft quickly updates the software with a service pack or new version to make the converter unreliable.
Actually people are already doing this. I work for a Fortune 500 company that outsourced all of its data centers to IBM already. IBM charges them based on CPU and disk space available for use at any time. This will allow them to cut costs even more by only paying for what they actually use; there is no expense for idle-time. Yes this is a concept from the 60's but everything gets recylced. Another concept from the 60's is a fat server with dumb terminals. In the 80's we went to a PC on every desk and now because of networks and the internet we have gone back to a fat server and dumb terminals.
I had it done 2 years ago. I was driving without glasses or anything else to my follow-up appt the next morning, I was going about 80mph, and I noticed the cop with the radar gun before he noticed me. I think that prooves how well lasik works. As a programmer I can say that I can still see clearly after 2 years and I am happy that I did it.
Lasik does have its problems: At night I get a starburst effect. It was very bad the first two weeks then slowly got better. By six months the effects were trivial. I still have it today but it does not impair my ability to drive at night. It is so insignificant that I do not even notice it anymore.
The best advice I can give is this: Don't go to one of the two-bit hacks that undercut everyone else on price. Research the people in the area and go to a real professional to have it done. While the process is automated so that the idiots can safely work on an assembly line of patients, the real professionals will pre-screen you and not work on eyes that have a high risk of complications.
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No, the article says that people are attacking the system with the default password that SBC sets when the voicemail is installed.
AT&T doesn't seem concerned because they are still charging people for the calls. (Gee, a 30% discount on a $10,000 phone call that a person did not make, how generous -sic.)
SBC probably doesn't care because it makes their competitor (or future competitor depending on your state), AT&T, look bad to consumers when they try to collect the bill.
If it is true we should take the deal he offered, Give us Osama, Cure AIDS, and let him walk.
Now if it is really true the guy would be an idiotic PHB. After all, He could claim the $25 million reward from the FBI, use the money to develop a cure for AIDS and make billions selling the drugs he developed. No one would ever know he is from the future or arrest him for insider trading.
From a different thread: Games Workshop has always been way over priced...
I do not know about miniatures, but I know wholesalers sell CD's at 50% of retail ($18 cd = $9 profit for the retailer) and I know software wholesalers sell at 54% lower than retail to large clients. ($60 software = $32.40 profit)
If miniatures are similarly priced, you do not need to sell many before you pay your rent and your minimum wage workers.
Web sites can have a much larger client base because of the reach of the internet. They can be located almost anywhere so rent can be much lower. They only need to pay working employees (they don't have to pay someone to watch the store when there are not any customers.) All of this allows them to sell at a much lower price then a mall store which kills
In my office the just did a new "Print2000" deployment. They removed all of the old printers from the office (no one is allowed to have a printer in their cube now) and replaced everything with high end Lexmark Printers. Of the 6 printers closest to my cube, 2 have already broken down and are unusable. This is pathetic; I know what brand I won't buy.
Here is why it won't work:
A PDA's screen is terrible for web browsing because of its size.
It is easier to use a full size keyboard to enter any significant amount of data.
If you can't charge it when required it is possible to lose data. (this happened to me once when I forgot the charger on vacation)
Its small size makes it easy to steal and if you don't have a pc you won't have a backup for your data.
A PDA is best used as an extension for your computer, it is not a replacement for your PC.
If you say that a title conveys a higher level of achievement on someone, I would say BULL; I have seen clueless people at all levels.
If some idiot in a state assembly says that engineers need to be certified so they can be held responsible for their creations; he is off his rocker. In our sue-happy society a piece of paper is not going to save someone's ass if they screw-up.
No, you are completely wrong with that. Just like here in the US there are good programmers and there are bad programmers. I work with some Indian programmers here and one in particular is very bright. Another one I work with is an idiot that doesn't know whats going on half the time. (Ironically the smart one became a citizen, the idiot is H1B.)
One thing that companies need to realize is that you get what you pay for. My previous job was off-shored to India. The reason that we were given was purely financial. We were told that it costs $90/hr for a programmer here including all overhead (this includes supervisor costs and facilities). By comparison, they told us a developer in India costs $30/hr. One of the first assignments given to the Indian group was an easy maintenance update, I could have done it in 8 hours, a Jr. Programmer new to the group might need 16 hrs to do the same job, the Indian group billed 128 hrs split by 3 people for the change. Lets recap: Me $720; JP $1,440; Indian group $3,840. However, I am sure that the upper levels are assuming that it would have taken the same amount of time and cost $11,520.
Anonymous Coward = Rick Berman? You decide...
Participants who connect to YouPlayGames' servers to play Return to Castle Wolfenstein will be required to have the latest version of Even Balance's PunkBuster Anti-Cheat software on their systems in order to compete.
Don't forget about Microsoft getting more money from developers and manufacuters. I have only installed one Non-Certified device driver on Win2000(My company's Laptop). It was a freeware PPPoE driver. The author wrote in the install notes the reason why it wasn't certified was because he couldn't afford to pay M$ for the certification.
Maybe they will predict that NetHack will die as well.
These games are just being published by smaller developers. The ones that can't afford the extraordinate fees to buy a chip so that there programs work on the consoles. These games are usually more affordable as well.
Check out some of these sites:
Game House
Pop Cap Games
Llamasoft
Shockwave Games
Actually, when my mail client downloads mail it does it one at a time(admittedly it is a lot faster than a fax). It is not unusual to get up to 50 spam messages a day and assuming 10K each that is 1/2MB. If you can't get Cable or DSL that can take a few minutes, and I pitty the person on dial-up that goes on vacation only to come home and download Spam for a half-hour.
This is easier said then done. I had a job that was "off-shored". The reason that we were given was purely financial. We were told that it costs $90/hr for a programmer here including all overhead (this includes supervisor costs and facilities). By comparison, they told us a developer in India costs $30/hr.
I stayed in contact with what was left of my co-workers (now known as knowledge transfer associates); One of the first assignments given to the Indian group was an easy maintenance update, I could have done it in 8 hours, a Jr. Programmer new to the group might need 16 hrs to do the same job, the Indian group billed 128 hrs split by 3 people for the change. Lets recap: Me $720; JP $1,440; Indian group $3,840. However, I am sure that the upper levels are assuming that it would have taken the same amount of time and cost $11,520.
Executives need to learn that you get what you pay for. You don't get quality work for the lowest price.
"Organized crime syndicates are frequently engaged in many types of illicit enterprises, including supporting terrorist activities," Malcolm said.
The shocker about that statement is that Valenti would have love to have made that comment and Gates wants everyone to believe it.
However, the biggest problem with paper will never be solved; by the time it is published, distributed, and sold it is out of date. If you need to look up the most recent information, online is the only way to go.
Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth, Book 1)
Stone of Tears (Sword of Truth, Book 2)
Blood of the Fold (Sword of Truth, Book 3)
Temple of the Winds (Sword of Truth, Book 4)
Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth, Book 5)
Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth, Book 6)
The Pillars of Creation
As for my other tastes in Fantasy:
I enjoy most books by R.A.Salvatore
Wiess and Hickman are hit an miss with me: I did not like the first Dragonlance trilogy, but I loved The Brothers Majere trilogy. I also enjoyed their Death Gate Cycle which was a seven book series. However most of their other work never interested me.
Actually, I think only about 5% of the people are Assholes, 93% are just morons that don't know any better. It makes it tough on the remaining 2%, but we lose all hope if we stoop to their level.
The power of a mainframe is a second reason. I am a developer that works about 75% of the time on the mainframe and about 25% of the time on Client/server applications. I suupport an application that starts with a 52 Gigabyte file on a mainframe, sorts the data, and reformats it down to an 8.5 Gigabyte file that is then sent to an UNIX server for for further processing. When I sort the file on the mainframe it takes about 1.5 hours, when the smaller file is later sorted on the server it takes 6 hours. That is a big difference especially when you consider that the mainframes is usually doing many other things at the same time.
Another huge difference is support. When something fails on a mainframe someone is always responsible. A few years ago I was having problems with a mainframe program crashing. (just the program crashed, it did not take down the system) The problem was eventually escalated to IBM's technical support who took care of it until it was resolved. Too many times on PC's/Servers the application programmers blame the middleware company, the middleware company blames the OS vendor, the OS vendor blames the application programmers. When a business's system is not working like it should they want it fixed. They do not want to be caught up in the middle of a vicious circle of the blame game. This fact that the vendors actually have accountability for their products also makes the mainframe more reliable in the long run.
What are the Microsoft bells and whistles? BSOD, the ability to tell Microsoft who raids the fridge in th middle of the night, also who watches the p0rn channels.
A Different option... If a fire takes out Ralsky's server and he doesn't have an offsite backup...
When someone makes a "reliable, transparent converter" Microsoft quickly updates the software with a service pack or new version to make the converter unreliable.
Actually people are already doing this. I work for a Fortune 500 company that outsourced all of its data centers to IBM already. IBM charges them based on CPU and disk space available for use at any time. This will allow them to cut costs even more by only paying for what they actually use; there is no expense for idle-time. Yes this is a concept from the 60's but everything gets recylced. Another concept from the 60's is a fat server with dumb terminals. In the 80's we went to a PC on every desk and now because of networks and the internet we have gone back to a fat server and dumb terminals.
I had it done 2 years ago. I was driving without glasses or anything else to my follow-up appt the next morning, I was going about 80mph, and I noticed the cop with the radar gun before he noticed me. I think that prooves how well lasik works. As a programmer I can say that I can still see clearly after 2 years and I am happy that I did it.
Lasik does have its problems: At night I get a starburst effect. It was very bad the first two weeks then slowly got better. By six months the effects were trivial. I still have it today but it does not impair my ability to drive at night. It is so insignificant that I do not even notice it anymore.
The best advice I can give is this: Don't go to one of the two-bit hacks that undercut everyone else on price. Research the people in the area and go to a real professional to have it done. While the process is automated so that the idiots can safely work on an assembly line of patients, the real professionals will pre-screen you and not work on eyes that have a high risk of complications.