IIRC a few years ago the Chinese were caught buying up surplus military equipment including replacement parts for Apache helicopters and hard drives containing sensitive nuclear data. Admittedly with such a huge organization carelessness is to be expected, especially since these guys are overworked and underpaid, but I do wish that the government would stop encouraging average americans to be paranoid when they constantly drop the ball themselves.
Vivendi is seriously cash-strapped at the moment and Micro$oft is just looking to expand its market share with the x-box. Personally I think its sickening that a Republican president will allow an abusive monopoly like micro$oft to control so much of what we do every day. I don't think Mac game releases are in jeopardy though, M$ allows a few of their top sellers to get ported.
Cool, but it scares me a little. At $15 a card, how much of our personal information will we be forced to carry around in our pockets? Take for example a national ID based on this card, it would have enough memory to store your medical information, financial information, school information, etc... Reminds me of Gattaca
*SIGH* The only thing better than good old American Science Fiction is the good old American legal system. Beyond this being a hopelessly stupid case (can you imagine being paid $400 an hour to observe a judge taking an action-figures clothes off?) the philosohpical implications are pretty nasty.
Basically this judge is saying that in order to be human you have to have physical human characteristics. Forget about Data, or artificial intelligence, or a more advanced biological form of Homo Sapien, no matter what is in your "soul" if you don't LOOK human, you aren't.
The question thats been bugging be the most about Kevin is why? Did you really think you were some sort of crusader or was that a delusion and your only realy motivation was for personal glory?
There's a difference between using a CD-R to back up your personal data (or software you own) and making 100,000 VCD's of harry potter and selling them on the streets before the movie is released. This would be like going after the companies that sell the parts to fake rolex watches and know that their parts are being used illicitly. If the Mexican gov. and RIAA is legitimately going after companies down there that are big pirates, than thats understandable.
BUT, its hard to be sympathetic to an industry that gauges artists like the RIAA. Plus, charging $15 for a CD in the US is one thing, in a developing country like Mexico its practically encouraging piracy.
When you finish installing reboot. When the finder loads hold down CMD, SHIFT, OPTION and CONTROL and select About this Mac from the Finder menu to reveal a cool easter egg.
Here's a pic
Its not about exploring, its about power
on
Kevin Free
·
· Score: 1
I had a similar albeit vastly lamer experience. I was lucky enough to go to a private school that specialized in science and technology. As an insecure kid I wanted to find out more about my classmates, and partially inspired by Enders Game I used a few tricks to get root access to the teachers server. In the end I learned a lot about technology and about people but mainly I got burned. I was disappointed because schools don't keep records on students beyond report card grades and comments, but even though the information I was looking for didn't exist I kept hacking. I would LIKE to say that I did it out of curiousity but think I did it because it made me feel powerful. If I was curious about how the systems worked I could have asked the admins (who I considered friends) and I'm sure they would have given me the opportunity to play around all I wanted. I kept my misdeeds a secret for an entire year, and then after I graduated bragged about them to someone I hardly knew, who through sheer incompetence managed to get himself caught immediately. Of course, he blamed me quickly and I got burned. It ended up ruining a few relationships and getting me in a crapload of trouble.
I admire the misdeeds of John "Cap'n Crunch" Draper and David Lightman as much as the next geek, but I don't buy their excuses any more. I think that like me they were hooked on the feeling of power they got from hacking, and power is not a good enough excuse to get away with a crime.
In the end I'm impressed by some of what Kevin Mitnick accomplished, but I don't have any simpathy for him. He acted like an asshole and he helped to create this whole atmosphere of fear around hacking.
Slashdot Mirror
IIRC a few years ago the Chinese were caught buying up surplus military equipment including replacement parts for Apache helicopters and hard drives containing sensitive nuclear data. Admittedly with such a huge organization carelessness is to be expected, especially since these guys are overworked and underpaid, but I do wish that the government would stop encouraging average americans to be paranoid when they constantly drop the ball themselves.
moron... at least have the guts to use your real user account
Vivendi is seriously cash-strapped at the moment and Micro$oft is just looking to expand its market share with the x-box. Personally I think its sickening that a Republican president will allow an abusive monopoly like micro$oft to control so much of what we do every day. I don't think Mac game releases are in jeopardy though, M$ allows a few of their top sellers to get ported.
Cool, but it scares me a little. At $15 a card, how much of our personal information will we be forced to carry around in our pockets? Take for example a national ID based on this card, it would have enough memory to store your medical information, financial information, school information, etc... Reminds me of Gattaca
*SIGH* The only thing better than good old American Science Fiction is the good old American legal system. Beyond this being a hopelessly stupid case (can you imagine being paid $400 an hour to observe a judge taking an action-figures clothes off?) the philosohpical implications are pretty nasty. Basically this judge is saying that in order to be human you have to have physical human characteristics. Forget about Data, or artificial intelligence, or a more advanced biological form of Homo Sapien, no matter what is in your "soul" if you don't LOOK human, you aren't.
The question thats been bugging be the most about Kevin is why? Did you really think you were some sort of crusader or was that a delusion and your only realy motivation was for personal glory?
BUT, its hard to be sympathetic to an industry that gauges artists like the RIAA. Plus, charging $15 for a CD in the US is one thing, in a developing country like Mexico its practically encouraging piracy.
When you finish installing reboot. When the finder loads hold down CMD, SHIFT, OPTION and CONTROL and select About this Mac from the Finder menu to reveal a cool easter egg. Here's a pic
I had a similar albeit vastly lamer experience. I was lucky enough to go to a private school that specialized in science and technology. As an insecure kid I wanted to find out more about my classmates, and partially inspired by Enders Game I used a few tricks to get root access to the teachers server. In the end I learned a lot about technology and about people but mainly I got burned. I was disappointed because schools don't keep records on students beyond report card grades and comments, but even though the information I was looking for didn't exist I kept hacking. I would LIKE to say that I did it out of curiousity but think I did it because it made me feel powerful. If I was curious about how the systems worked I could have asked the admins (who I considered friends) and I'm sure they would have given me the opportunity to play around all I wanted. I kept my misdeeds a secret for an entire year, and then after I graduated bragged about them to someone I hardly knew, who through sheer incompetence managed to get himself caught immediately. Of course, he blamed me quickly and I got burned. It ended up ruining a few relationships and getting me in a crapload of trouble. I admire the misdeeds of John "Cap'n Crunch" Draper and David Lightman as much as the next geek, but I don't buy their excuses any more. I think that like me they were hooked on the feeling of power they got from hacking, and power is not a good enough excuse to get away with a crime. In the end I'm impressed by some of what Kevin Mitnick accomplished, but I don't have any simpathy for him. He acted like an asshole and he helped to create this whole atmosphere of fear around hacking.