This was-in a way-Blue Security's model, and it worked exceptionally well. So well that one spammer fought back on a very large scale, causing much hate and discontent towards Blue Security.
The problem now is that businesses have learned their lessons and obfuscate their websites better, as well as adding CAPTCHAs to prevent automated scripts like Blue Frog from attacking them.
And I've encountered a few spams from legitimate businesses who had no clue that they'd hired a spammer to do their email advertising. The poor guy was scared to death when my brother-in-law told them what was happening, as they were a multi-million dollar New York real estate business dealing in properties in Montauk.
You don't ask prices for anything in Montauk, so this guy definitely did NOT need a spammer.
To piece that together requires completing a 19k piece jigsaw per page, something I tend to doubt that you are going to do by hand...
Well, it depends on what you're after?
If you're after crypto tapes, they're only 8-level paper tape, usually made out of a very distinctive paper or plastic. And shredding machines drop their shred in layers, so all you had to do was carefully peel away the layers to find what you were looking for.
In retrospect, the flaw in the process wasn't mechanical, it was people; we should have been reaching into the bag of shred and mixing it up like a salad before dumping the whole bag into the rubbish bin. But when you've got several reams of paper and tapes to go through in a 12-hour watch, along with keeping everything running, shortcuts happen. Not to mention that shred that small is worse than packing peanuts, and gets absolutely EVERYWHERE!
Now that we use the hammermill, it's a moot point.
When I was in the military, we used to shred our secret documents to NSA specs, which is 0.8mm x 4mm. That's about the same width as the "i" in the subject, and about twice as long.
In 2002, we were informed that this was not small enough, and now had to run the shredded documents through the hammer mill, so everything would be reduced to powder.
They caught some folks rummaging at the local landfill, looking for the trash bags filled with end of week, end of month and end of year destruction.
Those people had stereo microscopes in their homes and apartments, and were reassembling the documents and crypto tapes, one tiny piece at a time.
The Chinese have existed as a nation for longer than any other civilization on the face of this planet, and they take the "long view" in such things.
This bill in and of itself doesn't seem so bad? Pretty stock, kinda blah, a bit silly that such a thing is being seen as requiring a law?
But there's two potential paths.
1. This could be used to add more charges to spammers once they get caught. Stacking the offenses, so to speak, which is fine by me, really?
2. This is a "gimme" bill, one that's sure to pass because it's so simple and palatable. At least until they start tacking on riders, anyway? Now you've got a mild bill that has a few dozen rabid hyenas stapled to it, that nobody wants to try and kill. "Think of the Children" bills are notorious for this.
I don't put any critical details on my Google Profile, and Google hates me for it! They HATE me! Why do they hate me so much?!? I'm not ugly or fat? Well, maybe fat...
But yeah, I don't have my bio or any other crucial details, so Google says they don't want my profile to be public! I tried making it public, but they wanted more details and won't let it go up on their list. I email LOTS of people! But when Buzz came along, it just, like, TOTALLY IGNORED ME!!
Oh, sure, it activated itself and everything, but because my profile wasn't public-hate you SO MUCH Google-I got no followers! WHYYYYY?!? I WANT people to follow meeee!
I see how they are. I see! "Do no evil", huh? I'll show you! Just because I don't post all of my life history on your stupid website doesn't mean you can't control MY SOCIAL LIFE!
I've worked with pack horses, and horses can be incredibly stupid when they've got a pack on their back, but mules are very smart. They're sure-footed and can sense when the path ahead is too dangerous to travel, and if they don't wanna go, they just won't go.
Mules are intelligent, which means the operator has to build a strong relationship with them, built upon mutual respect and trust. Not that I don't think our soldiers are capable of doing such a thing, but it's something you don't want them doing. Seeing your favorite mules getting blown to bits will be just as traumatic and harmful as seeing your buddies getting killed, maybe even worse, since people often build closer bonds with animals than they do with other humans.
Also, one last thing is that when a mule is feeling cranky and wants to ruin your day, they won't just lash out like a stupid horse. Doc Waters warned us in class that they will target your belt-buckle and wait placidly until you're in range. No laid-back ears, no swishing tail, no sign of anger or aggression. You'll walk up and *KER-POW!*
Went with T-Mobile in 1998 when they came to Hawai'i.
1. Excellent customer service. 2. Flawless billing. Never overcharged once. 3. Outstanding customer service for military personnel. (They'll put your account in 'military suspend' for the duration of your deployment.) 4. Best. Prices. ANYWHERE. 5. World-wide service. Best of all, their phones are all SIM chip-based, so if you've got a quad-band phone, you can slip your US chip out and put in one from the country you're visiting. Voila! No overseas billing charges! 6. Not the fastest data service on EDGE/GPRS, but it works. No personal experience with their 3G just yet. 7. Always have a signal, no matter what service area I'm in. I can be out in the middle of East Bumhick, but if there's a tower out there, it doesn't matter whose tower it is, I've got connectivity.
T-Mobile compensated for their lack of initial coverage by signing service agreements with every single non-major and semi-major provider in the US, meaning you could be calling on Mom&Pop Telco, but NO ROAMING CHARGES!!
I haven't paid roaming charges since Verizon in Hawai'i got bought up by T-Mobile, and I've been a loyal customer since then.
I still have the Hawaiian number, and will never give it up.:)
I remember those wireless phones? We had an AT&T model back in 1984. It was on a frequency of 149mHz and it had a MUCH longer range than a mere 300 feet. Dad forgot he had it in his back pocket -he was wearing loose shorts with BIG pockets-while working in the garden and drove over to the local firehouse for a beer. (It was 84', you could do things like that back then. LOL! The vending machines had Budweiser.)
Anyway, he was chatting when the phone rang and he answered it. Blah-blah, blah-blah, hung up. Everyone in the place was like, "What is THAT?!", and Dad's showing it off, explaining he forgot it was in his pocket.
The thing is, the firehouse was about a mile away, probably 3/4 of a mile as the crow flies, and had houses and trees in the way. So yeah, it got a LOT farther than 300 feet.
Oh yes, on a side note, a friend of my father, Mr. Kluge, the old high school shop teacher, gave me an ancient HAM radio receiver to play with. It was heavy, it shocked the crap out of you if you touched the corners, and it was fascinating to play with. I set it up in the basement and hooked the antenna leads to the water pipes.
And proceeded to listen to all the drug deals, stock trades and mafia business being conducted from the beach houses in the Hamptons. Seems they all had wireless phones too, and as in the manner of all people who use technology they don't understand, they had NO idea they were being eavesdropped upon.
Now throw in GoogleTalk, Wave, Phone, Chrome, Android...and now the Nexus-1?
My hypothesis for the next 5 years of Google:
1. Become an ISP, like ComCast, TimeWarner, etc... 2. Become a telco like Qwest, Verizon, AT&T, etc... 3. Become a broadcaster like ABC, NBC, FOX, etc... 4. Become a wireless provider like T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, etc...
Pay close attention, folks. This is going to happen, and it's going to happen fast.
Community opposition and zoning requirements are often major stumbling blocks to building more cell sites.
Actually, the BIGGEST problem is getting the backbone to the tower. You have some opposition to towers, yes, but you can build whatever you like? If you can't run a pipe to it, all you've got is a ugly looking tree and nothing else.
That's the problem the telcos are running into right now? They're all trying to cut back on wireline services and boost their carrier network, but all of them run into a brick wall at the CO and remote terminals. You can only squeeze in so many DS3s before you have no choice but to upgrade the whole shootin match from the ground up, simply because the copper can't give anymore.
"I'm hoping the current leadership is/will be smart enough to put some kind of clever legal strictures in place that ties the hands of whoever may run the company after them in such a way as to enforce the "don't be evil" ethic."
Legal-Eagle: "companies that operate a public Wi-Fi hotspot should 'not be responsible in theory' for users' illegal downloads under 'existing substantive copyright law.'"
Quite right. However...
RIAA/MPAA/(EU equivalent): "Pay us or we use your @$$#0[3 as a target for the caber toss."
Guess what happens. (Note that's a statement, not a question.)
Just once...just...ONCE, I'd like to hear the lawyer for the defense lean into their client, nod their head, then turn to the presiding judge and say, "Your honor, based on current law and pre-existing statutes, my client has authorized me to tell the plaintiff, 'Go fuck yourselves.'"
Slashdot Mirror
This was-in a way-Blue Security's model, and it worked exceptionally well. So well that one spammer fought back on a very large scale, causing much hate and discontent towards Blue Security.
The problem now is that businesses have learned their lessons and obfuscate their websites better, as well as adding CAPTCHAs to prevent automated scripts like Blue Frog from attacking them.
And I've encountered a few spams from legitimate businesses who had no clue that they'd hired a spammer to do their email advertising. The poor guy was scared to death when my brother-in-law told them what was happening, as they were a multi-million dollar New York real estate business dealing in properties in Montauk.
You don't ask prices for anything in Montauk, so this guy definitely did NOT need a spammer.
To piece that together requires completing a 19k piece jigsaw per page, something I tend to doubt that you are going to do by hand...
Well, it depends on what you're after?
If you're after crypto tapes, they're only 8-level paper tape, usually made out of a very distinctive paper or plastic. And shredding machines drop their shred in layers, so all you had to do was carefully peel away the layers to find what you were looking for.
In retrospect, the flaw in the process wasn't mechanical, it was people; we should have been reaching into the bag of shred and mixing it up like a salad before dumping the whole bag into the rubbish bin. But when you've got several reams of paper and tapes to go through in a 12-hour watch, along with keeping everything running, shortcuts happen. Not to mention that shred that small is worse than packing peanuts, and gets absolutely EVERYWHERE!
Now that we use the hammermill, it's a moot point.
When I was in the military, we used to shred our secret documents to NSA specs, which is 0.8mm x 4mm. That's about the same width as the "i" in the subject, and about twice as long.
In 2002, we were informed that this was not small enough, and now had to run the shredded documents through the hammer mill, so everything would be reduced to powder.
They caught some folks rummaging at the local landfill, looking for the trash bags filled with end of week, end of month and end of year destruction.
Those people had stereo microscopes in their homes and apartments, and were reassembling the documents and crypto tapes, one tiny piece at a time.
The Chinese have existed as a nation for longer than any other civilization on the face of this planet, and they take the "long view" in such things.
This bill in and of itself doesn't seem so bad? Pretty stock, kinda blah, a bit silly that such a thing is being seen as requiring a law?
But there's two potential paths.
1. This could be used to add more charges to spammers once they get caught. Stacking the offenses, so to speak, which is fine by me, really?
2. This is a "gimme" bill, one that's sure to pass because it's so simple and palatable. At least until they start tacking on riders, anyway? Now you've got a mild bill that has a few dozen rabid hyenas stapled to it, that nobody wants to try and kill. "Think of the Children" bills are notorious for this.
"Take that NASA!"
Stephen Colbert's revenge!
I'm so upset I could just slit my wrists!
I don't put any critical details on my Google Profile, and Google hates me for it! They HATE me! Why do they hate me so much?!? I'm not ugly or fat? Well, maybe fat...
But yeah, I don't have my bio or any other crucial details, so Google says they don't want my profile to be public! I tried making it public, but they wanted more details and won't let it go up on their list. I email LOTS of people! But when Buzz came along, it just, like, TOTALLY IGNORED ME!!
Oh, sure, it activated itself and everything, but because my profile wasn't public-hate you SO MUCH Google-I got no followers! WHYYYYY?!? I WANT people to follow meeee!
I see how they are. I see! "Do no evil", huh? I'll show you! Just because I don't post all of my life history on your stupid website doesn't mean you can't control MY SOCIAL LIFE!
JERKS!
Italian Government: You will BAN the web address for the Pirate Bay!
ISP: Okay. *adds thepiratebay.com and thepiratebay.org to the "ban" list.*
Italian Government: ...You did that awful fast. Are you sure it's blocked?
ISP: Try it.
Italian Government: *types in both URLs with no joy* Right. Good riddance.
ISP: Yup. Bye.
Home user: *types 194.71.107.15 into their browser*
Mules are quite intelligent.
I've worked with pack horses, and horses can be incredibly stupid when they've got a pack on their back, but mules are very smart. They're sure-footed
and can sense when the path ahead is too dangerous to travel, and if they don't wanna go, they just won't go.
Mules are intelligent, which means the operator has to build a strong relationship with them, built upon mutual respect and trust. Not that I don't think our soldiers are capable of doing such a thing, but it's something you don't want them doing. Seeing your favorite mules getting blown to bits will be just as traumatic and harmful as seeing your buddies getting killed, maybe even worse, since people often build closer bonds with animals than they do with other humans.
Also, one last thing is that when a mule is feeling cranky and wants to ruin your day, they won't just lash out like a stupid horse. Doc Waters warned us in class that they will target your belt-buckle and wait placidly until you're in range. No laid-back ears, no swishing tail, no sign of anger or aggression. You'll walk up and *KER-POW!*
Went with T-Mobile in 1998 when they came to Hawai'i.
1. Excellent customer service.
2. Flawless billing. Never overcharged once.
3. Outstanding customer service for military personnel. (They'll put your account in 'military suspend' for the duration of your deployment.)
4. Best. Prices. ANYWHERE.
5. World-wide service. Best of all, their phones are all SIM chip-based, so if you've got a quad-band phone, you can slip your US chip out and put in one from the country you're visiting. Voila! No overseas billing charges!
6. Not the fastest data service on EDGE/GPRS, but it works. No personal experience with their 3G just yet.
7. Always have a signal, no matter what service area I'm in. I can be out in the middle of East Bumhick, but if there's a tower out there, it doesn't matter whose tower it is, I've got connectivity.
T-Mobile compensated for their lack of initial coverage by signing service agreements with every single non-major and semi-major provider in the US, meaning you could be calling on Mom&Pop Telco, but NO ROAMING CHARGES!!
I haven't paid roaming charges since Verizon in Hawai'i got bought up by T-Mobile, and I've been a loyal customer since then.
I still have the Hawaiian number, and will never give it up. :)
That should be pretty obvious, since treason now means "something I don't like."
Actually, Friend Computer says it means you're a commie mutant traitor!
It's too bad they got caught up in anti-GMO fever.
Yeah, having your liver and kidneys dying while inside your body does cause a fever. Yes it does.
I remember those wireless phones? We had an AT&T model back in 1984. It was on a frequency of 149mHz and it had a MUCH longer range than a mere 300 feet. Dad forgot he had it in his back pocket -he was wearing loose shorts with BIG pockets-while working in the garden and drove over to the local firehouse for a beer. (It was 84', you could do things like that back then. LOL! The vending machines had Budweiser.)
Anyway, he was chatting when the phone rang and he answered it. Blah-blah, blah-blah, hung up. Everyone in the place was like, "What is THAT?!", and Dad's showing it off, explaining he forgot it was in his pocket.
The thing is, the firehouse was about a mile away, probably 3/4 of a mile as the crow flies, and had houses and trees in the way. So yeah, it got a LOT farther than 300 feet.
Oh yes, on a side note, a friend of my father, Mr. Kluge, the old high school shop teacher, gave me an ancient HAM radio receiver to play with. It was heavy, it shocked the crap out of you if you touched the corners, and it was fascinating to play with. I set it up in the basement and hooked the antenna leads to the water pipes.
And proceeded to listen to all the drug deals, stock trades and mafia business being conducted from the beach houses in the Hamptons. Seems they all had wireless phones too, and as in the manner of all people who use technology they don't understand, they had NO idea they were being eavesdropped upon.
Read all the little bits, people...
2005: Google starts buying up dark fiber.
2007: Google buying land in middle of nowhere, near power stations, building data centers.
Now throw in GoogleTalk, Wave, Phone, Chrome, Android...and now the Nexus-1?
My hypothesis for the next 5 years of Google:
1. Become an ISP, like ComCast, TimeWarner, etc...
2. Become a telco like Qwest, Verizon, AT&T, etc...
3. Become a broadcaster like ABC, NBC, FOX, etc...
4. Become a wireless provider like T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, etc...
Pay close attention, folks. This is going to happen, and it's going to happen fast.
Alright, who fired D.E.S.T.I.N.I.?
Neat! It's a PADD! That, or a PADD crossed with a Tricorder.
...why the map server for Bing has been so flaky tonight?
Everyone has been forced to switch over from maps.google.com to maps.bing.com. Guess they weren't ready for the load.
"SUBCREATURES! Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, The Traveller has come! CHOOSE! CHOOSE AND PERISH...
Community opposition and zoning requirements are often major stumbling blocks to building more cell sites.
Actually, the BIGGEST problem is getting the backbone to the tower. You have some opposition to towers, yes, but you can build whatever you like? If you can't run a pipe to it, all you've got is a ugly looking tree and nothing else.
That's the problem the telcos are running into right now? They're all trying to cut back on wireline services and boost their carrier network, but all of them run into a brick wall at the CO and remote terminals. You can only squeeze in so many DS3s before you have no choice but to upgrade the whole shootin match from the ground up, simply because the copper can't give anymore.
...but I wanna see the ULTIMATE, the holiest of the holy, the Big Kahuna of top-secret files: The No-Fly List.
You can post this security theater stuff all day, and they're only going to whinge and make the occasional farting noise over it.
Post the No-Fly List if you really want to impress people. And watch cryptome and wikileaks go offline like a light switch.
Do you want to make a difference in this?
Start Twittering http://bit.ly/jurynull with the hashtag #jury-nullification.
To HELL with the law, bring justice back to the hands of the people.
"I'm hoping the current leadership is/will be smart enough to put some kind of clever legal strictures in place that ties the hands of whoever may run the company after them in such a way as to enforce the "don't be evil" ethic."
I see you were born yesterday...
Tried to view it at work with Firefox, and it crashed. Hard. It didn't even pull up the crash reporter. Tried it twice, same results.
Viewed it just fine in MSIE, though. Might be something in my addons...
*Firefox Gecko/20091102 Firefox/3.5.5
*NoScript 1.9.9.18
*AdBlock Plus 1.1.1
Legal-Eagle: "companies that operate a public Wi-Fi hotspot should 'not be responsible in theory' for users' illegal downloads under 'existing substantive copyright law.'"
Quite right. However...
RIAA/MPAA/(EU equivalent): "Pay us or we use your @$$#0[3 as a target for the caber toss."
Guess what happens. (Note that's a statement, not a question.)
And it's always harder to identify the bad guys in the real world than it is in the movies.
Not when they're shooting at you, calling for you to surrender and trying to throw ropes over the railing, it's not.
Just once...just...ONCE, I'd like to hear the lawyer for the defense lean into their client, nod their head, then turn to the presiding judge and say, "Your honor, based on current law and pre-existing statutes, my client has authorized me to tell the plaintiff, 'Go fuck yourselves.'"