Having been caught in this mess, mainly due to a delayed flight, what was a simple, one layover 6 hour flight, turned into a three layover 12 hour odyssey, where I'm fairly certain that I only got my luggage to me due to sheer luck.
As long as something you have (your personal information, your CPU cycles, your clicks, etc.) has value, it will be under attack. Blocking ads & javascript helps a lot, but there are still invisible tracking images, and perma-cookies, and white-listed code (adblock, I'm looking at you).
The war will continue, and the majority of people who don't have the time/inclination/skills to learn all the tricks of the trade will continue to be caught in the middle. SWATting, DOXing, etc. all prove that.
As long as there are governments willing to do whatever it takes to control their citizens, the war will continue. The DDoS of GitHub proves that.
As long as there is money to be made, hackers will still go after your information (SSN's, bank accounts, etc.) In the end, you just need to get used to the war, and try and survive the crossfire.
My feed is a nightmare, and I keep my friends list pretty well pruned. However, some of my friends friend anyone and get tagged by spammers in their feed, or their accounts get hacked, etc.
And don't even get me started on the ads, or the facebook links on every bloody website.
Damn I feel foolish now I've RTFA, she's complaining about YT trolls, there's no actual violence. One person posted a death threat with her address attached. Everyone from climate scientists to Exxon executives get that sort of shit continuously, it's (sadly) part of being a public figure.
This shouldn't be part of being a "public figure"....it lessens us as humans, and as a society....It's depressing, horrifying, and wrong, in any way, shape or form. There should be zero tolerance for threatening to abuse a person, sexually, or emotionally, or otherwise, even if the comments are made as "trolling". The fact that anyone sees this as acceptable for anyone to receive is scary to me...
Why would you think it's acceptable? Whether in jest or not?
Anytime the data is out of your physical control, it's compromised...
If you want truly secure backups, then you need to control both ends of the backup, as well as everything in between. If there's one thing Edward Snowden has showed us, it's that someone is watching *everything* online...and encrypted data is just begging to be examined, stored & hacked.
As far as I'm concerned, as soon as someone gets on the government dole, either because they're employed by the government, or are being supported by the government using taxpayer money, *every* taxpayer has a right to inspect the data. The person paying the bills has a right to know what they're paying for.
I want a copy of your criminal record, as well as your financial records...
You get police protection in your city, yes? You also have money in a bank with FDIC insurance?
That's all paid for by the government.
Also, I want access to your travel records....you drive on public roads...also, you are protected by the US Military....
Where do we stop?
Studying individual student records, including hobbies, likes/dislikes, etc. won't help judge school progress...
I've been dealing with this for a couple of years now...
I send back replies to people who are emailing me explaining they have the wrong person, and either mark the junk accounts as spam, or contact their customer service and ask for them to remove my email from their account.
Sometimes, the companies will actually comply, especially if it's for some children's website... (COPPA is a big deal).
For the ones who don't listen, or can't remove me, I just keep tossing them into the bit bucket.
Listening to NPR last night about this, they mentioned that the majority of the recipients already work for very large, well-funded institutions...and the money is going directly to the scientists, not being specified for actual research. So...how is this helping science? If they wanted to help scientists, they should make the money available as grants and give them to scientists who need funding.
So...my iPhone should connect to any cellular service?
Or....I can plug in my iPod into a linux box and the linux box has to recognize it and work with it without any additional software?
Or....I can stick a DVD for a Windows game into my OSX system and play the game?
Or, must Apple make every mobile application run on an iPhone (or even every application, period).
That statement is so vague, it's ridiculous.
He also did columns in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. They were always interesting, always intriguing, and always entertaining. He was a great man, and a great teacher. Time to go see if I still have his books...if not, time to go hit a bookstore for them.
RIP, Martin.
FTA: "any proprietary software is a computer that you don't control". How many people know half of what's going on with "Free" software? How many people not "into" tech know why free software is any different? And, how much free software is actually so thoroughly audited that everyone knows everything it does?
At some point, you have to take someone's word that the software you are loading on your computer is "trustworthy", unless you're going to write it all yourself. And even then, how much of that code is going to be your own, and how much will be copied from elsewhere?
Free software isn't inherently more trustworthy, it simply moves the trust relationship around.
I not only insisted that they change all the passwords I knew by heart, but I asked them to go through the entire list of passwords I might have access to and change them. I worked with my replacement to make sure that every password was changed properly, and that any access I might have had was closed off.
The last thing I wanted was to be in a position where someone hacked the systems and I got blamed because I "knew the passwords"....
I even handed over my personal notes on the network and had my boss shred the ones he didn't need before I left.
I can't believe there are that many admins who have that little respect for themselves that they'd be willing to steal passwords.
BMI's definitely off as a measuring tool....at my height, 5'11", 175 lbs is 24.4, but at 175, I'm unhealthy for my build. (large shoulders, heavy bone structure) I can lie on my back and you can see my spine through what should be my stomach.
The Treo 700w doesn't even use any palm applications to receive mail wirelessly. It uses Microsoft's OS and mail servers in order to push email out....
I love how NTP isn't going after Microsoft...must be being used as a front company for them.
Actually, as a network admin at a e-commerce retailer in the late '90s, I did exactly that...
If someone portscanned my system, or dumped exploit scripts against me, I contacted the ISP. If I didn't get a response, or did not get a satisfactory response, I closed off that ISP from my web servers
That usually got me a quick response from the ISP's network security group and a resolution to my problem.
I actually had a university student perform such a search against me because of an internet programming class assignment such as this. After blocking the university and contacting their network security department, the class got their own sandbox to play in and they got access to my website.
I have to say...an interesting fact to me about wikipedia is that if you search for "Israel", you get no responses. Search for "Palestine" and you get a dozen+....
If that isn't biased...
The author has a point here. We accept a lot more... "bugginess" in software than we do in any other product (Cars, Banks, Tools, etc.) And it's pretty much become the norm that if there are problems, folks just shrug, claim it's just software and move on.
But if the folks building bank vaults left as many holes in their products as software, people would be screaming bloody murder.
I've done software development as a hobby myself, and don't release my code to the public, because I know it's not even up to my own standards of stability, reliability, security.
Programmers/developers need to take more time with their products, and think security & reliability from the start of a project, not as an afterthought.
With as many products requiring patches within the first couple weeks of release, consumers do need to start getting angry about this stuff. Or, at the very least, start challenging software companies when the products they do release require more MB in patches than the software was originally....
I object to Cisco Routers being used to route packets that contain child porn, racism, and jingoism...
Perhaps Cisco should install software on all their routers so that Cisco engineers can examine every packet that they route and determine if it's for a moral purpose....
This would be like buying half-dozen shares in the Remington corporation and demand they stop selling guns to people who kill things with them...
Cisco's business is firewalls and such...they have no control over what the purchasers of their equipment do with them...and if Cisco cuts off direct ties to China, then any one of their hundreds of resellers will sell the product to the Chinese.
And one last thing. When those books are mine, in my house, on my shelf, no one is going to virus them up and knock them offline. I can read them anytime I like, under MY terms and conditions, not some draconian bullshit DRM communist copyright shit.
Wouldn't that be "Authoritarian"?? Communism isn't necessarily evil or restrictive...it was the Autocratic Government of Soviet Russia that was the problem...
And they had a simpler method...they just burned the books.
Slashdot Mirror
Having been caught in this mess, mainly due to a delayed flight, what was a simple, one layover 6 hour flight, turned into a three layover 12 hour odyssey, where I'm fairly certain that I only got my luggage to me due to sheer luck.
I've never had this much trouble flying...
The war will continue, and the majority of people who don't have the time/inclination/skills to learn all the tricks of the trade will continue to be caught in the middle. SWATting, DOXing, etc. all prove that.
As long as there are governments willing to do whatever it takes to control their citizens, the war will continue. The DDoS of GitHub proves that.
As long as there is money to be made, hackers will still go after your information (SSN's, bank accounts, etc.) In the end, you just need to get used to the war, and try and survive the crossfire.
My feed is a nightmare, and I keep my friends list pretty well pruned. However, some of my friends friend anyone and get tagged by spammers in their feed, or their accounts get hacked, etc.
And don't even get me started on the ads, or the facebook links on every bloody website.
Damn I feel foolish now I've RTFA, she's complaining about YT trolls, there's no actual violence. One person posted a death threat with her address attached. Everyone from climate scientists to Exxon executives get that sort of shit continuously, it's (sadly) part of being a public figure.
This shouldn't be part of being a "public figure"....it lessens us as humans, and as a society....It's depressing, horrifying, and wrong, in any way, shape or form. There should be zero tolerance for threatening to abuse a person, sexually, or emotionally, or otherwise, even if the comments are made as "trolling". The fact that anyone sees this as acceptable for anyone to receive is scary to me...
Why would you think it's acceptable? Whether in jest or not?
If you want truly secure backups, then you need to control both ends of the backup, as well as everything in between. If there's one thing Edward Snowden has showed us, it's that someone is watching *everything* online...and encrypted data is just begging to be examined, stored & hacked.
Where's your source on that?
I use non-apple chargers all the time for my iphone charging...they work just fine.
As far as I'm concerned, as soon as someone gets on the government dole, either because they're employed by the government, or are being supported by the government using taxpayer money, *every* taxpayer has a right to inspect the data. The person paying the bills has a right to know what they're paying for.
I want a copy of your criminal record, as well as your financial records...
You get police protection in your city, yes? You also have money in a bank with FDIC insurance?
That's all paid for by the government.
Also, I want access to your travel records....you drive on public roads...also, you are protected by the US Military....
Where do we stop?
Studying individual student records, including hobbies, likes/dislikes, etc. won't help judge school progress...
I send back replies to people who are emailing me explaining they have the wrong person, and either mark the junk accounts as spam, or contact their customer service and ask for them to remove my email from their account.
Sometimes, the companies will actually comply, especially if it's for some children's website... (COPPA is a big deal).
For the ones who don't listen, or can't remove me, I just keep tossing them into the bit bucket.
Listening to NPR last night about this, they mentioned that the majority of the recipients already work for very large, well-funded institutions...and the money is going directly to the scientists, not being specified for actual research. So...how is this helping science? If they wanted to help scientists, they should make the money available as grants and give them to scientists who need funding.
To have worked in one place for so long, and to affect so many folks...wherever you go, it'll be a step down.
Good luck to you!
It still affects me, even now...It's strange what sticks with you.
So...my iPhone should connect to any cellular service? Or....I can plug in my iPod into a linux box and the linux box has to recognize it and work with it without any additional software? Or....I can stick a DVD for a Windows game into my OSX system and play the game? Or, must Apple make every mobile application run on an iPhone (or even every application, period). That statement is so vague, it's ridiculous.
He also did columns in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. They were always interesting, always intriguing, and always entertaining. He was a great man, and a great teacher. Time to go see if I still have his books...if not, time to go hit a bookstore for them. RIP, Martin.
At some point, you have to take someone's word that the software you are loading on your computer is "trustworthy", unless you're going to write it all yourself. And even then, how much of that code is going to be your own, and how much will be copied from elsewhere?
Free software isn't inherently more trustworthy, it simply moves the trust relationship around.
You may stab me in the back, but I will still treat with you fairly, for my sake, not yours.
But don't expect me to trust you again.
The last thing I wanted was to be in a position where someone hacked the systems and I got blamed because I "knew the passwords"....
I even handed over my personal notes on the network and had my boss shred the ones he didn't need before I left.
I can't believe there are that many admins who have that little respect for themselves that they'd be willing to steal passwords.
BMI's definitely off as a measuring tool....at my height, 5'11", 175 lbs is 24.4, but at 175, I'm unhealthy for my build. (large shoulders, heavy bone structure) I can lie on my back and you can see my spine through what should be my stomach.
The Treo 700w doesn't even use any palm applications to receive mail wirelessly. It uses Microsoft's OS and mail servers in order to push email out.... I love how NTP isn't going after Microsoft...must be being used as a front company for them.
Actually, as a network admin at a e-commerce retailer in the late '90s, I did exactly that...
If someone portscanned my system, or dumped exploit scripts against me, I contacted the ISP. If I didn't get a response, or did not get a satisfactory response, I closed off that ISP from my web servers
That usually got me a quick response from the ISP's network security group and a resolution to my problem.
I actually had a university student perform such a search against me because of an internet programming class assignment such as this. After blocking the university and contacting their network security department, the class got their own sandbox to play in and they got access to my website.
The problem is...did the rape need to be depicted as graphically as it was?
I don't think so...I think it could have been more implied and still been effective.
But, Serenity was not all it could, or should have been.
The series had a lot of potential, and in trying to please too many folks, the movie lacked the ability to measure up to it.
I saw it once, and would rather watch the episodes of the TV show...
I have to say...an interesting fact to me about wikipedia is that if you search for "Israel", you get no responses. Search for "Palestine" and you get a dozen+.... If that isn't biased...
The author has a point here. We accept a lot more ... "bugginess" in software than we do in any other product (Cars, Banks, Tools, etc.) And it's pretty much become the norm that if there are problems, folks just shrug, claim it's just software and move on.
But if the folks building bank vaults left as many holes in their products as software, people would be screaming bloody murder.
I've done software development as a hobby myself, and don't release my code to the public, because I know it's not even up to my own standards of stability, reliability, security.
Programmers/developers need to take more time with their products, and think security & reliability from the start of a project, not as an afterthought.
With as many products requiring patches within the first couple weeks of release, consumers do need to start getting angry about this stuff. Or, at the very least, start challenging software companies when the products they do release require more MB in patches than the software was originally....
I object to Cisco Routers being used to route packets that contain child porn, racism, and jingoism... Perhaps Cisco should install software on all their routers so that Cisco engineers can examine every packet that they route and determine if it's for a moral purpose.... This would be like buying half-dozen shares in the Remington corporation and demand they stop selling guns to people who kill things with them... Cisco's business is firewalls and such...they have no control over what the purchasers of their equipment do with them...and if Cisco cuts off direct ties to China, then any one of their hundreds of resellers will sell the product to the Chinese.