There are massive databases that track people and a subsets of those that track students and alumni. I wouldn't say that the NSLC is the only source of data. Almost every large school and community college has a bank with a branch on campus promoted through the school and they will sell your information and data. When you graduate and leave school you usually get on an alumni list that in turn feeds other sources, and so on, and so on. State and federal agencies also get data feeds from colleges (other than NSLC). If your college uses a service to clean up names and addresses, well guess who now has a name, address and part of a social security number in some cases? Yup, that organization and the database they use/feed, and the database its uses/feeds, all the way up to the big database. Guess who also uses the big database; mass marketers.
The point is, once your name gets in a list then the spam will come and mass marketing will come. And that list never gets updated with info like you graduated, or dropped out, etc.; you're just a name and they will continue to spam you even if you've moved, got a jobs, paid your loans or even died in a car crash.
I'm not advocating any of this but it is simple a fact. Once you are a student there are a number of ways you can end up on a list and many of them are uncontrolled and some the college in question is legally required to use/feed.
Oh and the only way to get rid of a social security number as a means of identification is to provide a better universal ID. Seriously.
Add to the above the fact that pornographic material is easily reusable and can be repackaged numerous ways at a low cost. Pornography also lends itself very well to the type of on-demand, pick-what-you-want Internet mentality. Theoretically a studio can sign a group of performers to a contract to shoot a set number of scenes, distribute those scenes in DVD format in full-length movies, repackage the scenes later as a "best-of performer" then redistrbute, slice and repackage the individual scenes the redistribute them by genre, etc. etc. It is still all the same stuff, simply packaged differently and offered in a way a consumer would like. Also, think of the possibilities for repackaging "classic" movies and redistributing of billions of hours of material.
I would consider it but are they simply adding another layer to exploit? There would have to be some sort of mechanism to transmit information to ad services (i.e. I'm a 35 yro male pervert who likes hockey, Italian food and race cars) and receive the advertisements.
Also wouldn't there be a trust level? Not many people trust Microsoft to begin with, how do we know what they would be collecting beyond what we tell them?
I could always lie and say I'm a 300lb 62yro woman who likes lavender dish soap and I have a jumprope collection...
Also many legacy systems have been in place for years (decades) keyed by SSN via decisions made in the 1970's, 1980's etc. when ID theft wasn't as prevalent nor easy as it is today. Also many colleges are getting their budgets cut either directly or indirectly by state and federal government and usually the first to go is administrative support. Actually, the college I work for gave me three weeks notice yesterday on my contract because of recent Ohio legislation. Yay...
What I don't understand, especially in a home cable broadband setting where upstream is at a premium and when saturated hampers downstream speeds, is why it's necessary to distribute that bandwidth and software to nodes on the network. Doesn't it make more sense to place the torrent upload at the service provider network? Otherwise you are receiving data at one hop, then to one or more nodes on the "fat pipe" part of the cable segment, then part or all of it back up through a much thinner "pipe" back to the hop and back to the Internet.
One segment of their market is perfectly happy with Windows 2000 releases and simply want continued support for a mature and paid for product. Another segment of the market demands newer technology to deal with rapidly evolving hardware and platform requirements.
It's not that it's a no-win, they won two separate battles and now have to support both segments. Microsoft's problem is that they create far too many situations like this with their massive product lines.
I've consulted for three different local colleges. Here are a couple things you might want to consider (applyies to colleges in Ohio):
Most pay into their own retirement system, not social security - which could mean a reduction or elimination of your social security benefits due to the Windfall Elimination Provision.
All of them offered free tuition or reimbursement at a specific level, usually percentage of Ohio State's rates. Some offer reductions for children and spouses.
Most universities have free use of library and athletic facilities.
The level of bureaucracy in both faculty and administration is significantly
higher than the private sector.
Stress levels are typically lower, but that is changing as more and more
technology gets required at reduced budgets. Stress levels due to increased
political and bureaucratic tension is also a growing problem.
Salary is usually lower than the private sector.
Benefits are usually better, but that is also changing due to increased
problems with health care.
The one caveat about schools and universities; all of the benefits like
low-stress, tolerant atmosphere, good benefits, paid-overtime, etc. can
disappear quickly if funding decreases and/or the administration changes -
leaving you with a job similar to the one in the private sector just with less
pay and free library and gym time.
The SSN is kept with your records as a method of validating who you are. This is a massive business with dozens (hundreds, thousands) of partners and services. For example:
Seisint, recently purchased by L/N, is the head of the monster:
Seisint provides information products that allow organizations to quickly and easily extract valuable knowledge from huge amounts of data. These innovative products are made possible by integrating Seisint?s Data Supercomputer technology, tens of billions of data records on individuals and businesses, and patent-pending data linking methods.
Seisint's products are aimed at critical areas such as:
Law enforcement
Risk management
Fraud detection
Identity verification
Insurance investigations
Legal research
Customer data hygiene and integration
Skip tracing and asset identification
Accurint is a "product" of Seisint
Accurint is a leading information management and technology company providing its customers with the most accurate and complete information. Accurint?s data stores contain billions of records that are searched, analyzed, and compiled in seconds.
Accurint can locate almost anyone, find deep background and historical information, and shorten research time and costs. Accurint provides aliases, historical addresses, relatives, associates, neighbors, assets, and more. Much more.
Accurint is focused on helping collection agencies, companies with internal collections departments, lawyers, insurance professionals, law enforcement agencies, and corporations locate debtors, witnesses, suspects, and other persons critical to their work.
MarketModels, Inc. specializes in targeted marketing lists, bills through and gets their data from Accurint:
MarketModels, Inc., with headquarters in North Kingstown, RI, is the leading supplier of highly targeted Internet marketing lists and data-delivery platforms to high-tech companies throughout the United States and Canada. We compile the most comprehensive lists available of Web-enabled businesses and consumers and deliver them via the Internet with lightening-fast turnaround times.
The AlumniFinder?s WealthScore? is the fastest and most reliable way to rate and score prospects according to their maximum giving potential?helping you target and solicit alumni on their level?at any level.
This proves that they must have some way of ranking you financially.
What's scary is: you only need a 501 C3 tax exemption letter from the IRS (obtainable for $69 with step by step instructions from numerous "starting your own business" web sites) to apply at AlumniFinder along with names and social security numbers for businesses with less than five years of incorporation to obtain this data.
The SSN is required if you receive most types of financial aid, if you are getting reimbursed in somes way where taxation is involved, and a couple other legitimate instances.
Part of the SSN is required to validate data for alumni against lists provided by subsidiaries of child companies owner or operated by larger companies like Seisint (LexusNexus).
Actually Seisint has numerous child companies (like the Accurint service) that sell data to numerous and bill to even more companies (like Market Models, Inc.) which is divided into parts that caters to specific markets (like AlumniFinder). Seisint also has alliances with Accenture (related to Andersen Consulting of Enron fame) and Equifax (big 3 credit); who purchased Naviant (opt-in marketing) in 2002.
Where do you place the blame in that small example shown above, exactly where did the breach occur?
Does it even matter what server they are running? To get data from one of those companies listed above all you need a 501 C3 tax exemption letter from the IRS (obtainable for $69 with step by step instructions from numerous "starting your own business" web sites). If all you need to do is spend a couple hundo to start your own business and purchase one of these lists then it doesn't matter if Seisint runs Windows or LexisNexis runs Linux when some individual is going to give you the data...
Who here has kids that bypass the firewall and answer "Y"es to allow traffic even though you expressly forbid them not to but they do so anyways and have full access to Administrator mode because the copy protection on their damned games requires Administrator mode? (Ooooh, Ohhhh - me me me!)
This will probably end up redundant, but, if you have a perfectly good install of Windows 2000 and it's doing everything you want it to then is there a reason to spend $72 to $180 per machine for XP Professional Upgrade?
Personally, I use both at home and just went through a round of spending to get the family legit on Windows XP. When you factor in the cost of upgrades to systems built in the Windows 98SE and Windows 2000 era I ended up spending a couple hundred US $$$ with educational discounts.
Since I am in an educational setting I decided to save a little cash on my development systems by purchasing the MSDN Operation Systems subscription which has releases of 2003,XP,2000 and 98.
Enrollment in the CS programs of study, both degree and certificate, is down sharply and the majority who change program of study state "I want to be able to get a job when I graduate" as the reason for switching. One of the instructors I recently spoke with was visibly upset at how bad things are and that most local businesses they work with have abandoned them.
It's hard to justify two to five years of education when most jobs have disappeared or have such extensive requirements that a college graduate has little or no hope of finding an entry level position to obtain the experience required to get a good job.
On the radio the other day, someone equated the erosion of our liberties to the process of boiling a frog: you don't throw the frog into boiling water, it's reflexes are faster and it will hop out; what you do is put the frog into water then boil the water. If you want to take away liberties you start small and unnoticable and erode them before anybody notices what is going on.
This is just another step in that slow but eventual process.
Add to this measure recent amendments added to the defense authorization bill by Brownback (increase fines) and Harkin (get Rush off military radio), and INDUCE by Hatch and company, and Clear-Channel fined to a "clean-slate" status; one can see that government is positioning itself to enforce the political agendas in power.
I've used a Lexar jumpdrive 128MB and now have a USB2.0 Lexar jumpdrive pro. I see these all the time for reasonable prices usually after rebate from Staples or such. I've never had problems with either.
It would be interesting to see reliability factored into the final rating. I had a cigar drive before that (can't remember who made it) and it was cheap plastic, broke (but still works). The Lexar plastics seem to be a little better but probably shouldn't stay jammed into someones jeans. The new one has a rubber cap and seems pretty solid.
Autopatcher XP is more for fresh installs of Windows XP, not really for keeping machines up to date a secure with the most current patches. The most current version of Autopatcher is March, if the April/May release doesn't come out today or tomorrow. I used to use Bigfix on my 98 machines but it seemed to get behind too frequently
That said, however, Autopatcher has some good things going for it
Customizable database (add your own default installation items.
Or even newer games like Activision's Call of Duty that requires "Administrator Rights" just to play. Found that out the other day when I installed it for my son. I would prefer his user ID not to have those permissions, since he has already downloaded a couple of adware/spyware nasties by downloading mod's for those games. I don't see why a freakin' game needs those rights after it has been properly installed, configured and run.
I also work at a college and will second the educational software complaints, as some pre-date even NT (some just won't give up those wonderful CGA DOS tutors).
Already seen it, annoyed by it
on
New Wave of Web Ads?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
One is downloading a "WM9" plug-in to play video and audio in a little 80x80 box. Nothing like having an advertisement for the movie about the kid and the porn star next door get everybody prairie-dogging at work.
Just as bad as the eyeblaster, pop-over, pop-under, scroll down, overlay, scroll-across, click-through, media-intercept, content diversion, pop-up, console, "content-rich" flash, flash, Java "shoot the monkey", roll-over, animated.GIF, and every other damn thing before it.
Still, I would prefer to be the one in control when it comes to what I or my children watch, read or listen to. Not the government. Why right does the government have to disagree over what a parent has a responsibility for? Republicans say it's okay to take responsibility for firearms in my house but not a radio?
As for the slide in society, do we blame people for the verbage of others? I think it has more to do with people taking liberties without being responsible for them. "Hey, some singer says an f-bomb so that mean I can say the f-bomb whenevery I want." That is someone not taking a responsibility for acting civil in public. If someone sees a rape in a movie, commits rape, do you go after the movie or the criminal? If someone kills because of the bible do we start censoring the bible or prosecute the murderer?
What nerves me about the whole situation is that this FCC business is not about decency, it's about power (and money i.e. power).
Slashdot Mirror
There are massive databases that track people and a subsets of those that track students and alumni. I wouldn't say that the NSLC is the only source of data. Almost every large school and community college has a bank with a branch on campus promoted through the school and they will sell your information and data. When you graduate and leave school you usually get on an alumni list that in turn feeds other sources, and so on, and so on. State and federal agencies also get data feeds from colleges (other than NSLC). If your college uses a service to clean up names and addresses, well guess who now has a name, address and part of a social security number in some cases? Yup, that organization and the database they use/feed, and the database its uses/feeds, all the way up to the big database. Guess who also uses the big database; mass marketers.
The point is, once your name gets in a list then the spam will come and mass marketing will come. And that list never gets updated with info like you graduated, or dropped out, etc.; you're just a name and they will continue to spam you even if you've moved, got a jobs, paid your loans or even died in a car crash.
I'm not advocating any of this but it is simple a fact. Once you are a student there are a number of ways you can end up on a list and many of them are uncontrolled and some the college in question is legally required to use/feed.
Oh and the only way to get rid of a social security number as a means of identification is to provide a better universal ID. Seriously.
Klendathu I'm not worried.
Add to the above the fact that pornographic material is easily reusable and can be repackaged numerous ways at a low cost. Pornography also lends itself very well to the type of on-demand, pick-what-you-want Internet mentality. Theoretically a studio can sign a group of performers to a contract to shoot a set number of scenes, distribute those scenes in DVD format in full-length movies, repackage the scenes later as a "best-of performer" then redistrbute, slice and repackage the individual scenes the redistribute them by genre, etc. etc. It is still all the same stuff, simply packaged differently and offered in a way a consumer would like. Also, think of the possibilities for repackaging "classic" movies and redistributing of billions of hours of material.
Ampzilla 2000
Are they shopping for a another price break from Intel for staying with a single vendor?
I would consider it but are they simply adding another layer to exploit? There would have to be some sort of mechanism to transmit information to ad services (i.e. I'm a 35 yro male pervert who likes hockey, Italian food and race cars) and receive the advertisements.
Also wouldn't there be a trust level? Not many people trust Microsoft to begin with, how do we know what they would be collecting beyond what we tell them?
I could always lie and say I'm a 300lb 62yro woman who likes lavender dish soap and I have a jumprope collection...
SSN is required for financial aid.
SSN is also strongly requested (read: required) by federal and state entities for reporting to get funding, etc... See:
Also many legacy systems have been in place for years (decades) keyed by SSN via decisions made in the 1970's, 1980's etc. when ID theft wasn't as prevalent nor easy as it is today. Also many colleges are getting their budgets cut either directly or indirectly by state and federal government and usually the first to go is administrative support. Actually, the college I work for gave me three weeks notice yesterday on my contract because of recent Ohio legislation. Yay...
What I don't understand, especially in a home cable broadband setting where upstream is at a premium and when saturated hampers downstream speeds, is why it's necessary to distribute that bandwidth and software to nodes on the network. Doesn't it make more sense to place the torrent upload at the service provider network? Otherwise you are receiving data at one hop, then to one or more nodes on the "fat pipe" part of the cable segment, then part or all of it back up through a much thinner "pipe" back to the hop and back to the Internet.
It's not a no win situation for Microsoft.
One segment of their market is perfectly happy with Windows 2000 releases and simply want continued support for a mature and paid for product. Another segment of the market demands newer technology to deal with rapidly evolving hardware and platform requirements.
It's not that it's a no-win, they won two separate battles and now have to support both segments. Microsoft's problem is that they create far too many situations like this with their massive product lines.
I've consulted for three different local colleges. Here are a couple things you might want to consider (applyies to colleges in Ohio):
The one caveat about schools and universities; all of the benefits like low-stress, tolerant atmosphere, good benefits, paid-overtime, etc. can disappear quickly if funding decreases and/or the administration changes - leaving you with a job similar to the one in the private sector just with less pay and free library and gym time.
The SSN is kept with your records as a method of validating who you are. This is a massive business with dozens (hundreds, thousands) of partners and services. For example:
Seisint, recently purchased by L/N, is the head of the monster:
Seisint provides information products that allow organizations to quickly and easily extract valuable knowledge from huge amounts of data. These innovative products are made possible by integrating Seisint?s Data Supercomputer technology, tens of billions of data records on individuals and businesses, and patent-pending data linking methods.
Seisint's products are aimed at critical areas such as:
Accurint is a "product" of Seisint
Accurint is a leading information management and technology company providing its customers with the most accurate and complete information. Accurint?s data stores contain billions of records that are searched, analyzed, and compiled in seconds.
Accurint can locate almost anyone, find deep background and historical information, and shorten research time and costs. Accurint provides aliases, historical addresses, relatives, associates, neighbors, assets, and more. Much more.
Accurint is focused on helping collection agencies, companies with internal collections departments, lawyers, insurance professionals, law enforcement agencies, and corporations locate debtors, witnesses, suspects, and other persons critical to their work.
MarketModels, Inc. specializes in targeted marketing lists, bills through and gets their data from Accurint:
MarketModels, Inc., with headquarters in North Kingstown, RI, is the leading supplier of highly targeted Internet marketing lists and data-delivery platforms to high-tech companies throughout the United States and Canada. We compile the most comprehensive lists available of Web-enabled businesses and consumers and deliver them via the Internet with lightening-fast turnaround times.
AlumniFinder is part of MarketModels, Inc. and provides the first five digits of someone's social security number using the address search (for verification)
The AlumniFinder?s WealthScore? is the fastest and most reliable way to rate and score prospects according to their maximum giving potential?helping you target and solicit alumni on their level?at any level.
This proves that they must have some way of ranking you financially.
What's scary is: you only need a 501 C3 tax exemption letter from the IRS (obtainable for $69 with step by step instructions from numerous "starting your own business" web sites) to apply at AlumniFinder along with names and social security numbers for businesses with less than five years of incorporation to obtain this data.
The SSN is required if you receive most types of financial aid, if you are getting reimbursed in somes way where taxation is involved, and a couple other legitimate instances.
Part of the SSN is required to validate data for alumni against lists provided by subsidiaries of child companies owner or operated by larger companies like Seisint (LexusNexus).
Actually Seisint has numerous child companies (like the Accurint service) that sell data to numerous and bill to even more companies (like Market Models, Inc.) which is divided into parts that caters to specific markets (like AlumniFinder). Seisint also has alliances with Accenture (related to Andersen Consulting of Enron fame) and Equifax (big 3 credit); who purchased Naviant (opt-in marketing) in 2002.
Where do you place the blame in that small example shown above, exactly where did the breach occur?
Does it even matter what server they are running? To get data from one of those companies listed above all you need a 501 C3 tax exemption letter from the IRS (obtainable for $69 with step by step instructions from numerous "starting your own business" web sites). If all you need to do is spend a couple hundo to start your own business and purchase one of these lists then it doesn't matter if Seisint runs Windows or LexisNexis runs Linux when some individual is going to give you the data...
Who here has kids that bypass the firewall and answer "Y"es to allow traffic even though you expressly forbid them not to but they do so anyways and have full access to Administrator mode because the copy protection on their damned games requires Administrator mode? (Ooooh, Ohhhh - me me me!)
This will probably end up redundant, but, if you have a perfectly good install of Windows 2000 and it's doing everything you want it to then is there a reason to spend $72 to $180 per machine for XP Professional Upgrade?
Personally, I use both at home and just went through a round of spending to get the family legit on Windows XP. When you factor in the cost of upgrades to systems built in the Windows 98SE and Windows 2000 era I ended up spending a couple hundred US $$$ with educational discounts.
Since I am in an educational setting I decided to save a little cash on my development systems by purchasing the MSDN Operation Systems subscription which has releases of 2003,XP,2000 and 98.
Enrollment in the CS programs of study, both degree and certificate, is down sharply and the majority who change program of study state "I want to be able to get a job when I graduate" as the reason for switching. One of the instructors I recently spoke with was visibly upset at how bad things are and that most local businesses they work with have abandoned them.
It's hard to justify two to five years of education when most jobs have disappeared or have such extensive requirements that a college graduate has little or no hope of finding an entry level position to obtain the experience required to get a good job.
On the radio the other day, someone equated the erosion of our liberties to the process of boiling a frog: you don't throw the frog into boiling water, it's reflexes are faster and it will hop out; what you do is put the frog into water then boil the water. If you want to take away liberties you start small and unnoticable and erode them before anybody notices what is going on.
This is just another step in that slow but eventual process.
Add to this measure recent amendments added to the defense authorization bill by Brownback (increase fines) and Harkin (get Rush off military radio), and INDUCE by Hatch and company, and Clear-Channel fined to a "clean-slate" status; one can see that government is positioning itself to enforce the political agendas in power.
I've used a Lexar jumpdrive 128MB and now have a USB2.0 Lexar jumpdrive pro. I see these all the time for reasonable prices usually after rebate from Staples or such. I've never had problems with either.
It would be interesting to see reliability factored into the final rating. I had a cigar drive before that (can't remember who made it) and it was cheap plastic, broke (but still works). The Lexar plastics seem to be a little better but probably shouldn't stay jammed into someones jeans. The new one has a rubber cap and seems pretty solid.
Autopatcher XP is more for fresh installs of Windows XP, not really for keeping machines up to date a secure with the most current patches. The most current version of Autopatcher is March, if the April/May release doesn't come out today or tomorrow. I used to use Bigfix on my 98 machines but it seemed to get behind too frequently
That said, however, Autopatcher has some good things going for it
http://www.autopatcher.com/WebAPXP.htm
EOM
Gotta love their press releases...
Whenu Wins Another Legal Victory In Fight For Consumer Desktop FreedomConsumer desktop freedom... Nice...
Or even newer games like Activision's Call of Duty that requires "Administrator Rights" just to play. Found that out the other day when I installed it for my son. I would prefer his user ID not to have those permissions, since he has already downloaded a couple of adware/spyware nasties by downloading mod's for those games. I don't see why a freakin' game needs those rights after it has been properly installed, configured and run.
I also work at a college and will second the educational software complaints, as some pre-date even NT (some just won't give up those wonderful CGA DOS tutors).
One is downloading a "WM9" plug-in to play video and audio in a little 80x80 box. Nothing like having an advertisement for the movie about the kid and the porn star next door get everybody prairie-dogging at work.
Just as bad as the eyeblaster, pop-over, pop-under, scroll down, overlay, scroll-across, click-through, media-intercept, content diversion, pop-up, console, "content-rich" flash, flash, Java "shoot the monkey", roll-over, animated .GIF, and every other damn thing before it.
Still, I would prefer to be the one in control when it comes to what I or my children watch, read or listen to. Not the government. Why right does the government have to disagree over what a parent has a responsibility for? Republicans say it's okay to take responsibility for firearms in my house but not a radio?
As for the slide in society, do we blame people for the verbage of others? I think it has more to do with people taking liberties without being responsible for them. "Hey, some singer says an f-bomb so that mean I can say the f-bomb whenevery I want." That is someone not taking a responsibility for acting civil in public. If someone sees a rape in a movie, commits rape, do you go after the movie or the criminal? If someone kills because of the bible do we start censoring the bible or prosecute the murderer?
What nerves me about the whole situation is that this FCC business is not about decency, it's about power (and money i.e. power).
The same Orin Hatch that wants to remotely blow up your computer for swapping stuff?