Now if foriegn courts would just be so nice about things such as spam and child pornography.
Anyone else ever feel like we're getting the raw deal, their complaints tend to get reasonably addressed, but ours tend to get thrown out the window , espcially in china.
With spam this is true, but as far as child porn it's not. China's gone one further and made all porn illegal online at least. I remember an article, posted on/. I think, recently telling how China was cracking down on those who viewed porn online by arresting them.
Re:How many of us could actually mount a defense?
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The Basics of EULAs
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Which is all fine and dandy if you can get your lawyers to work for free until the judgement. Otherwise Mattel didnt pay the legal fees they just gave him back what he had already paid. This, of course, relies on you having the money to mount a defence and take the risk of waving goodbye to it if you lose.
I ddn't say it was a perfect system, but it is a step in the right direction. Mattel did have to reimburse him for all legal fees incurred, and they were penalized in addition to that for filing the lawsuit to start with. While the artist was out the money for a period of time, ultimately Mattel was punished for causing that. In states without anti-SLAPP laws on the books, at best the case would have been thrown out and maybe Mattel would have to pay the legal fees of the defendant. At least with anti-SLAPP laws on record the return of those fees is assured and the company filing the SLAPP suit is punished for their actions.
More needs to be done though, that's for sure. Large companies are increasingly using the court system to silence critics who haven't really broken any laws.
Holy Non Sequitor Batman! Explain why "demand is a function of price" means "iTunes store wouldn't sell a single track".
Because all the music on iTunes store is readily available on most all the P2P networks for free, thus the demand for the non-free product would drop to zero in face of the availability of the free stuff. (Which was the grandparent's apparent argument.)
Re:How many of us could actually mount a defense?
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The Basics of EULAs
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· Score: 5, Informative
It really doesn't matter if click-through is binding or not. Most companies just play the "Right or wrong, we'll sue your ass into the ground and bankrupt you on court costs."
Who does an 800 pound gorilla sue? Anyone he wants.
Depends on the state, but in some of them they can get hit with fines in addition to having to pay the defendants full legal costs for filing a SLAPP lawsuit. (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) Mattel found this out the hard way when they sued that artist using Barbie dolls in his art. Mattel didn't like the way he used them and sued. A judge threw it out, fined Mattel a large amount and made them pay the guy's full legal fees.
Sadly not all states have anti-SLAPP laws on the books, they all should.
I will believe that EULAs are enforcable as soon as the first EULA is enforced, but not sooner.
While I realize it's a Slashdot tradition to not RTFA before posting about it, you really need to go RTFA. EULA have been enforced by court decisions, and apparently they go back a fair ways, there's plenty of legal precedent to enforce them now, under the right conditions.
In this case, talking about MMORPG EULAs, it's even more clear cut. You're shown the EULA every time you log in (even just the first time is enough) and have to agree to it before playing. That constitutes a legal contract even without the legal precedents already set. That's the gist of this guy's discussion.
So time to start believing they're enforceable, since they are.
Quick economics lesson : Demand is a function of price. There is a lot of demand, because the illegal copies are FREE.
That's not necessarily true. If it was then iTunes store wouldn't sell a single track, but they do. People wouldn't come into stores looking for singles of songs they like, but they do.
The demand is there for digital music downloads in the format people want, free of DRM crap and at a reasonable price. I suspect you could sell tons and tons of music at around 50 cents a track in Mp3 format. Hell the RIAA companies could still sell tons of CD singles but they've killed off that market trying to force people to buy full albums.
Besides, books are available for free, you can check them out of the library and read them and not pay a cent. You do have to return them in time, but that's a small issue in exchange for free books. Why would anyone buy a book when they can read it for free? People do it every day though.
Demand's not a function of price, price is a function of demand. If supply is low and demand is high, price rises. If supply is high and demand is low, price drops. That's the point the RIAA & MPAA are missing. With digital music/movies supply is infinite, so normal economics rules indicate that price should drop. Instead they want to charge as much as, or more, than it costs to buy a better quality physical copy. No wonder they're doing so poorly, they haven't got a clue how to handle the digital market, not technically or economically.
If you don't like the law, work to change it. Don't think that you can get away with breaking it because you don't believe in it.
People are, the EFF does, even the ACLU has gotten involved in cases. Both, and many more, have protested proposed legislation that would make things even worse than they are now. None of it's helped. Why? The MPAA and RIAA have apparently infinite amounts of money to spend on lobbyists and buying off congresscritters. The rest of us don't stand a snowball's chance in hell during the dog days of summer.
People are protesting this, some of those downloading are doing it as civil disobedience. I'm not saying everyone is, but I'd say a fair percentage, perhaps 10% are. With the numbers of downloaders even 10% is a large amount. The problem with protesting this is no matter how you do it, the MPAA/RIAA will spin it to their benefit. You stop buying albums because you think the RIAA's evil incarnate? Well sales are down, it's all because of piracy (not because people are voting with their wallets or think the product's drivel, it's gotta be those pirates!). Want to download as civil disobedience? Well it's all piracy, and it's affecting their sales. Complain to your congresscritter? You're supporting piracy and P2P networks that introduce children to pornography and distribute child porn. (Anyone else remember that bill?)
Face it, the people can't win this one by normal methods. It may come down to everyone switching to illegal downloading to drive the RIAA/MPAA out of business just to get to a solution that respects everyone's rights. Until something drastic happens the RIAA & MPAA will continue to get laws passed that trample our rights in the name of protecting their failing business model.
You know, there's a simple explanation - maybe they ran out of the forms, and since nobody reads the damned things anyway, the guy working the counter figured screw it when Corey made a fuss.
But that's not as much fun as blaming an evil corporation and the new Evil Empire.
I'm not saying I wouldn't have been a little skittish at something like that - I'd just probably have made something up and went on with my life.
If it was truly a TSA regulation the official that let him go on without providing the information could end up in trouble for it, so I really doubt that this is the case. The fact that it's not being consistantly done is another clue that it's not a TSA regulation, it's an AA thing. I also kinda doubt they'd run out of forms, most businesses now keep these things in PDF or HTML formats so new ones can be printed up if all copies are gone. That and if it was a regulation thing, well the airlines know better than to run out of them, they'd get in a lot of trouble for having several hundred or thousand forms missing that should have been filed.
I agree with your sentiment at the end (making something up) but if it is indeed a real requirement by the TSA or FAA, making up the info could cause you trouble. If they decided to check it and found out it was definitely fake (say the address you provide doesn't exist or is an empty lot or something) you might find yourself arrested as a suspected terrorist. They'd likely be able to hold you for knowingly providing false information as well. Eventually you'd be cleared of terrorism charges, but it wouldn't be an experience one would want to have.
Personally I think it's just AA going overboard. I don't think they were doing this to collect addresses to market to or anything. They probably just are ultra paranoid and decided to go further than the actual regulations require, figuring that way they'd be covering their ass if anything else happened on one of their flights. That still doesn't make it right though.
So it's a US thing? Please explain, then, why I had to fill out a form saying where I would be staying when I flew into London from the US?
Yes other countries require this information, I had to provide it when I went to Japan a few years ago as well. People are missing a couple of key differences though:
Countries that require this have a form that you fill this information out on. This gentleman was handed a blank sheet of paper. This alone should set off alarm bells.
This "requirement" suddenly dissapeared when they found out he was a platinum club member. This either suggests that they believe no terrorist would bother becoming a platinum club member or they just harass people who aren't.
I suspect if he'd been given a form to fill this info out on the whole thing wouldn't have bothered him, or not nearly as much. I'd be rather suspicious of being told to write this info down on a blank sheet of paper. How do I know the security guard just doesn't like me and is going to go hunt down my friends to kill them? Silly thought? Maybe, but then again I truly would have no way of knowing if that was the case or not, and their seemed to be no official form to back up his claim that it was required.
I take it this idiot senator believes all the world's coders live in the US, right? And that Russians and Poles and Brits and Aussies are all too backward to write P2P code..?
No, they're aware of that, the normal sequence of events goes like this:
Pass stupid law benefiting businesses and screwing over all citizens in some state to set a precedent.
Use precedent of law and lawmakers bought in Congress to pass federal version of the law.
Get said lawmakers and lobbyists to push administration to force other countries to draft same law in their countries or suffer from pulled trade/etc. with the US
Profit while the individuals of the world suffer because of your narrow-minded business views.
Here's a suggestion. Look out the window! If you need to know it's sunny outside! I mean really, America is the fattest nation in the world, and now they are too lazy to go to a window to look outside?
Perhaps *gasp* we hang a thermometer outside to get the temperature?
I can't speak for others, but my Mother liked using it just because it showed her the tempature. It's not exactly lazy to walk to the other end of the house to check the temperature on the computer either, less lazy than looking out the window at a thermometer and not getting up.
not only is it hard as hell to uninstall, when you go through the process it says first:
"Stop! Do you really want to uninstall Weatherbug? It could save your life!" and then:
"Click here to stop recieving LIFE SAVING hazardous weather alerts!"
any program that tries to scare people (probably older computer users, ie: grandparents) into keeping it, is malware in my book
I had forgotten about those, they really ticked me off as well. That just adds even more proof that they're not legit. Hell, I've uninstalled spyware and malware that behaved better, at least they didn't claim I was risking my life removing them.
I'm curious why you have a problem with this? The bank already has your SSN on file (IIRC it's a tax requirement), so it's not like you are giving them any new information, merely confirming something that they can see on the screen in front of them.
Because it's actually illegal to require a SSN as identification unless you're the Social Security Administration. Also I'm not always at home when I call them. If I'm at work I don't want to be giving out my SSN on the phone where coworkers may hear me.
It's largely the principle of the thing, their alternate identification is actually more likely to trip up someone trying identity theft than the SSN question. They ask me what branch I opened my account at. That's something that an identity thief would have trouble finding out, as it's not written down anywhere (except the bank's records I suppose).
It's not just the bank, I refuse to give out my SSN as identification in general. I don't have a problem providing it when they have a legitimate need for it (for tax purposes for instance) but asking for it for identification is not a valid use, even if they have it on file for tax purposes.
Can you give some links to some? I'd love to have a program that offers similar capabilities without the evilness.
Weather Pulse is ad free and free (as in beer). I haven't used it myself though. Here's the info blurb from their website:
Display popular Satellite images and video from around the globe, share images with your friends and family, stay updated on current and expected weather conditions, it's just plain fun!
Weather Pulse is Free for use, if you enjoy the program, just let us know by dropping by our website and using our many services and software. Please feel free to suggest anything you'd like to see in future releases, your suggestions will determine the future upgrades and software development.
Weatherbug wound up on my PC at home. I think it is from when my GF put AIM on the computer. If found some instructions on removing it, though I haven't had a chance to try them yet. It includes info on registry updates that Weatherbug makes and even mentions an alternative product for those who what weather updates. -R
That's the guide I used to finally get rid of it, I'm just suspicious that the new versions have probably changed what registry entries it makes since there's guides to remove the old ones. Basically I don't trust them at all.:)
Duh! So WinXP is spyware. Some updates are installed automatically and try to uninstall it:D
No, you can turn automatic updates off and chose not to install them even with SP2. I have mine set to download and prompt me to install, I always do custom install and I can uncheck the updates I don't want. It doesn't override my choice and install those anyway like Weatherbug did.
I would love a good source to prove that Weatherbug is spyware. My parents use it (the full, paid for version). I had heard that it was spyware and told them so, but my brother in law, who is an executive in the IT department of a major corporation, told them it wasn't. Guess who they believed? -Ken
I can't prove it's spyware, but I can prove they do things against your wishes, see my reply to the grandparent
here for more info. I'd highly recommend they get rid of it, there are alternatives that aren't evil.
I wonder who invests in Weatherbug, the notorious spyware company that spams message boards saying "we are not spyware" ? (They have yet to install spyware that says "we do not spam").
For anyone who doubts Weatherbug's evilness, I can relate a concrete example of it. My Mom had been using Weatherbug, and I let her keep it because it seemed fairly harmless. Then one day last month I checked her computer and a box was popped up saying an update to Weatherbug was available, asking if I wanted to install it. I clicked no, it installed anyway.
It took me a while to get rid of it as well, the remove program entry was broken, I had to download the crap again and install it again to finally get rid of it. I suspect it's left a few registry entries I haven't found yet.
Weatherbug may or may not be spyware, but I'm inclined to believe it is. Legit companies don't install upgrades against your consent and make it hard as hell to uninstall their software. That is how spyware/malware generally works though.
Thats stupid, Its like saying you don't have to agree to Microsofts Eulas when clearly if you want to get anything done in a business world you have to.
Exactly, the government doesn't even enforce the law so it's become entrenched and abused. Only now are companies starting to realize that it's not only illegal but a Bad Idea(tm) to use SSNs to identify everyone. It's sad that someone had the foresight to see this would be a problem (thus the law was created in the first place) but it took it actually becoming a problem for anything to be done.
To give you an idea how entrenched it is, my health insurance company just finally changed everyone's ID numbers from SSN to another system last year. Up until then my SSN was printed on my health insurance card, which I have to provide to any doctor/hospital I go to so I receive benefits.
Now there is nothing wrong with spending money on what makes you happy as long as its within reason, but how many people out there have maxed out credit cards, drive a new car, have a full entertainment package ($80+ cable bills, cell phones with every feature and service imaginable, big "going-out" entertainment budget), and shop out of boredom, all while having little or no savings?
What's annoying is most of the country makes it hard to save on some things, for instance where I live a car is an absolute must, there's almost no public transportation. I really wouldn't mind taking a train or bus to work to save money, but no such luck. I try to save where I can, but truthfully between my necessities (car payment, car insurance, copays on prescriptions, Internet access (I work in IT so this is a necessity), food, gas and student loan payments) I have little left each month. It's highly frustrating to be looking at another 20+ years on the student loans to pay and not seeing the possibility of having significant savings for quite a while.
This "buy now, pay later, I don't have to plan for my future" is what I'm worried about. A little ID theft here and there won't kill us.
Very true, and it also creates an environment hostile to non-credit card using consumers. I don't have a credit card, don't particularly want one either, and there are times where it's a major problem. Thankfully I do have a check card that works like one through my bank, that's helped a lot and I don't have to worry about overspending.
ID Theft is worse than you think though. Even if you find out about it early, the banks and credit card companies aren't terribly interested in helping you. A friend of mine found out someone had applied for a credit card in her name (I forget how she found out, I think she had a fraud warning on her credit report). The card was actually issued, and thankfully not used. It took her two months to get the credit card company that issued it to do anything about it, even though she could prove who she was. They just weren't interested in helping stop the fraud before it happenned, apparently it's easier to just charge it off and let the individual have to deal with the problem on their credit report.
That's nuts. I can see them trying to require your driver's license, as that's the form of picture ID they'd use to identify you (if they bother, and most don't), but not SSN.
IANAL, but as I recall it's against the law to require a SSN as identification for things like checks. I'd check into it and report them, not that anything's likely to happen, but maybe it will. Identify theft is becoming a massive problem.
My bank tries this on me whenever I call to talk to someone they want my account number and SSN to identify me. I always refuse and ask to use an alternate form of identification, a trick one of their CSRs told me about years ago. At least they'll accept an alternate form of ID though, some places refuse.
Guess you've never worked for government, eh? Embarrass a government official and they'll do everything in their power to lay the blame for their incompetence on your doorstep.
Unfortunately I know this all too well, but it's still something that should be addressed when documents of such importance are allowed to leak. It sounds like this was pretty high level stuff, not just embarassing stuff. From the article: "He'd obtained a log of an IRC chat session in which a hacker named "Myth" copy-and-pasted excerpts of an internal Secret Service memorandum report, and a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty from the Russian Federation. Both documents are described in the Secret Service affidavit as "highly sensitive information pertaining to ongoing USSS criminal cases.""
Try to remember that the people who work for government aren't James Bond. In fact, most of 'em aren't very bright at all, even the ones who work in intelligence. The agent acted like an incompetent fool because he was an incompetent fool, as are most of his compatriots.
Precisely, which is why I'd like to know he'd been disciplined for screwing up so badly. If he's not he'll just go do it again. If he is he very well may learn his lesson and keep secret stuff encrypted on monitorable networks. I didn't say I wanted him fired, just disciplined, otherwise he's not going to learn anything.
It's be best for Opera to allow schools to distribute it to their students. It's very possible that Universities may start forbidding IE usage, and if Opera's available to the students too, they may just get lifelong users. After all you get used to a program after 4+ years of use.
On the other hand, how can he work as a mole when so much about his identity is already revealed? If the entire world now knows his name, has access to his resume, etc., isn't he at great risk of being identified?
Not really, this stuff all takes place online in forums and IRC so all he has to do is create new identities and work his back into the scene. If he does get exposed, just lather, rinse, repeat. I'm sure the secret service can make sure he has plenty of different IPs to come from to help him mask his identity and location.
Just because he is reading Secret Service mail doesn't mean it is important. For all we know the mail could read like this: On todays lunch menu we are not going to be having the chicken fajita due to a lack of chicken, we will be having PB & J's. Surely they have secure transmission lines (& methods of encryption) , so why would they send anything of importance over T-Mobiles network?
If you'd RTFA, you'd know that many of things he had access to were important, sensitive and, in an ideal world, should have been encrypted. One good question the article didn't ask is why'd the secret service agent send these things unencrypted over a monitorable network? Personally I'd like to know that he had been disciplined for allowing this security breach to occur.
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Now if foriegn courts would just be so nice about things such as spam and child pornography.
With spam this is true, but as far as child porn it's not. China's gone one further and made all porn illegal online at least. I remember an article, posted onAnyone else ever feel like we're getting the raw deal, their complaints tend to get reasonably addressed, but ours tend to get thrown out the window , espcially in china.
Which is all fine and dandy if you can get your lawyers to work for free until the judgement. Otherwise Mattel didnt pay the legal fees they just gave him back what he had already paid. This, of course, relies on you having the money to mount a defence and take the risk of waving goodbye to it if you lose.
I ddn't say it was a perfect system, but it is a step in the right direction. Mattel did have to reimburse him for all legal fees incurred, and they were penalized in addition to that for filing the lawsuit to start with. While the artist was out the money for a period of time, ultimately Mattel was punished for causing that. In states without anti-SLAPP laws on the books, at best the case would have been thrown out and maybe Mattel would have to pay the legal fees of the defendant. At least with anti-SLAPP laws on record the return of those fees is assured and the company filing the SLAPP suit is punished for their actions.
More needs to be done though, that's for sure. Large companies are increasingly using the court system to silence critics who haven't really broken any laws.
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Holy Non Sequitor Batman! Explain why "demand is a function of price" means "iTunes store wouldn't sell a single track".
Because all the music on iTunes store is readily available on most all the P2P networks for free, thus the demand for the non-free product would drop to zero in face of the availability of the free stuff. (Which was the grandparent's apparent argument.)-
It really doesn't matter if click-through is binding or not. Most companies just play the "Right or wrong, we'll sue your ass into the ground and bankrupt you on court costs."
Depends on the state, but in some of them they can get hit with fines in addition to having to pay the defendants full legal costs for filing a SLAPP lawsuit. (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) Mattel found this out the hard way when they sued that artist using Barbie dolls in his art. Mattel didn't like the way he used them and sued. A judge threw it out, fined Mattel a large amount and made them pay the guy's full legal fees.Who does an 800 pound gorilla sue? Anyone he wants.
Sadly not all states have anti-SLAPP laws on the books, they all should.
I will believe that EULAs are enforcable as soon as the first EULA is enforced, but not sooner.
While I realize it's a Slashdot tradition to not RTFA before posting about it, you really need to go RTFA. EULA have been enforced by court decisions, and apparently they go back a fair ways, there's plenty of legal precedent to enforce them now, under the right conditions.
In this case, talking about MMORPG EULAs, it's even more clear cut. You're shown the EULA every time you log in (even just the first time is enough) and have to agree to it before playing. That constitutes a legal contract even without the legal precedents already set. That's the gist of this guy's discussion.
So time to start believing they're enforceable, since they are.
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Quick economics lesson : Demand is a function of price. There is a lot of demand, because the illegal copies are FREE.
That's not necessarily true. If it was then iTunes store wouldn't sell a single track, but they do. People wouldn't come into stores looking for singles of songs they like, but they do.The demand is there for digital music downloads in the format people want, free of DRM crap and at a reasonable price. I suspect you could sell tons and tons of music at around 50 cents a track in Mp3 format. Hell the RIAA companies could still sell tons of CD singles but they've killed off that market trying to force people to buy full albums.
Besides, books are available for free, you can check them out of the library and read them and not pay a cent. You do have to return them in time, but that's a small issue in exchange for free books. Why would anyone buy a book when they can read it for free? People do it every day though.
Demand's not a function of price, price is a function of demand. If supply is low and demand is high, price rises. If supply is high and demand is low, price drops. That's the point the RIAA & MPAA are missing. With digital music/movies supply is infinite, so normal economics rules indicate that price should drop. Instead they want to charge as much as, or more, than it costs to buy a better quality physical copy. No wonder they're doing so poorly, they haven't got a clue how to handle the digital market, not technically or economically.
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If you don't like the law, work to change it. Don't think that you can get away with breaking it because you don't believe in it.
People are, the EFF does, even the ACLU has gotten involved in cases. Both, and many more, have protested proposed legislation that would make things even worse than they are now. None of it's helped. Why? The MPAA and RIAA have apparently infinite amounts of money to spend on lobbyists and buying off congresscritters. The rest of us don't stand a snowball's chance in hell during the dog days of summer.People are protesting this, some of those downloading are doing it as civil disobedience. I'm not saying everyone is, but I'd say a fair percentage, perhaps 10% are. With the numbers of downloaders even 10% is a large amount. The problem with protesting this is no matter how you do it, the MPAA/RIAA will spin it to their benefit. You stop buying albums because you think the RIAA's evil incarnate? Well sales are down, it's all because of piracy (not because people are voting with their wallets or think the product's drivel, it's gotta be those pirates!). Want to download as civil disobedience? Well it's all piracy, and it's affecting their sales. Complain to your congresscritter? You're supporting piracy and P2P networks that introduce children to pornography and distribute child porn. (Anyone else remember that bill?)
Face it, the people can't win this one by normal methods. It may come down to everyone switching to illegal downloading to drive the RIAA/MPAA out of business just to get to a solution that respects everyone's rights. Until something drastic happens the RIAA & MPAA will continue to get laws passed that trample our rights in the name of protecting their failing business model.
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You know, there's a simple explanation - maybe they ran out of the forms, and since nobody reads the damned things anyway, the guy working the counter figured screw it when Corey made a fuss.
If it was truly a TSA regulation the official that let him go on without providing the information could end up in trouble for it, so I really doubt that this is the case. The fact that it's not being consistantly done is another clue that it's not a TSA regulation, it's an AA thing. I also kinda doubt they'd run out of forms, most businesses now keep these things in PDF or HTML formats so new ones can be printed up if all copies are gone. That and if it was a regulation thing, well the airlines know better than to run out of them, they'd get in a lot of trouble for having several hundred or thousand forms missing that should have been filed.But that's not as much fun as blaming an evil corporation and the new Evil Empire.
I'm not saying I wouldn't have been a little skittish at something like that - I'd just probably have made something up and went on with my life.
I agree with your sentiment at the end (making something up) but if it is indeed a real requirement by the TSA or FAA, making up the info could cause you trouble. If they decided to check it and found out it was definitely fake (say the address you provide doesn't exist or is an empty lot or something) you might find yourself arrested as a suspected terrorist. They'd likely be able to hold you for knowingly providing false information as well. Eventually you'd be cleared of terrorism charges, but it wouldn't be an experience one would want to have.
Personally I think it's just AA going overboard. I don't think they were doing this to collect addresses to market to or anything. They probably just are ultra paranoid and decided to go further than the actual regulations require, figuring that way they'd be covering their ass if anything else happened on one of their flights. That still doesn't make it right though.
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So it's a US thing? Please explain, then, why I had to fill out a form saying where I would be staying when I flew into London from the US?
Yes other countries require this information, I had to provide it when I went to Japan a few years ago as well. People are missing a couple of key differences though:- Countries that require this have a form that you fill this information out on. This gentleman was handed a blank sheet of paper. This alone should set off alarm bells.
- This "requirement" suddenly dissapeared when they found out he was a platinum club member. This either suggests that they believe no terrorist would bother becoming a platinum club member or they just harass people who aren't.
I suspect if he'd been given a form to fill this info out on the whole thing wouldn't have bothered him, or not nearly as much. I'd be rather suspicious of being told to write this info down on a blank sheet of paper. How do I know the security guard just doesn't like me and is going to go hunt down my friends to kill them? Silly thought? Maybe, but then again I truly would have no way of knowing if that was the case or not, and their seemed to be no official form to back up his claim that it was required.-
I take it this idiot senator believes all the world's coders live in the US, right? And that Russians and Poles and Brits and Aussies are all too backward to write P2P code..?
No, they're aware of that, the normal sequence of events goes like this:-
Here's a suggestion. Look out the window! If you need to know it's sunny outside! I mean really, America is the fattest nation in the world, and now they are too lazy to go to a window to look outside?
I can't speak for others, but my Mother liked using it just because it showed her the tempature. It's not exactly lazy to walk to the other end of the house to check the temperature on the computer either, less lazy than looking out the window at a thermometer and not getting up.Perhaps *gasp* we hang a thermometer outside to get the temperature?
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not only is it hard as hell to uninstall, when you go through the process it says first:
I had forgotten about those, they really ticked me off as well. That just adds even more proof that they're not legit. Hell, I've uninstalled spyware and malware that behaved better, at least they didn't claim I was risking my life removing them."Stop! Do you really want to uninstall Weatherbug? It could save your life!" and then:
"Click here to stop recieving LIFE SAVING hazardous weather alerts!"
any program that tries to scare people (probably older computer users, ie: grandparents) into keeping it, is malware in my book
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I'm curious why you have a problem with this? The bank already has your SSN on file (IIRC it's a tax requirement), so it's not like you are giving them any new information, merely confirming something that they can see on the screen in front of them.
Because it's actually illegal to require a SSN as identification unless you're the Social Security Administration. Also I'm not always at home when I call them. If I'm at work I don't want to be giving out my SSN on the phone where coworkers may hear me.It's largely the principle of the thing, their alternate identification is actually more likely to trip up someone trying identity theft than the SSN question. They ask me what branch I opened my account at. That's something that an identity thief would have trouble finding out, as it's not written down anywhere (except the bank's records I suppose).
It's not just the bank, I refuse to give out my SSN as identification in general. I don't have a problem providing it when they have a legitimate need for it (for tax purposes for instance) but asking for it for identification is not a valid use, even if they have it on file for tax purposes.
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Can you give some links to some? I'd love to have a program that offers similar capabilities without the evilness.
Weather Pulse is ad free and free (as in beer). I haven't used it myself though. Here's the info blurb from their website:Weather Pulse is Free for use, if you enjoy the program, just let us know by dropping by our website and using our many services and software. Please feel free to suggest anything you'd like to see in future releases, your suggestions will determine the future upgrades and software development.
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Weatherbug wound up on my PC at home. I think it is from when my GF put AIM on the computer. If found some instructions on removing it, though I haven't had a chance to try them yet. It includes info on registry updates that Weatherbug makes and even mentions an alternative product for those who what weather updates. -R
That's the guide I used to finally get rid of it, I'm just suspicious that the new versions have probably changed what registry entries it makes since there's guides to remove the old ones. Basically I don't trust them at all.-
Duh! So WinXP is spyware. Some updates are installed automatically and try to uninstall it
:D
No, you can turn automatic updates off and chose not to install them even with SP2. I have mine set to download and prompt me to install, I always do custom install and I can uncheck the updates I don't want. It doesn't override my choice and install those anyway like Weatherbug did.-
I would love a good source to prove that Weatherbug is spyware. My parents use it (the full, paid for version). I had heard that it was spyware and told them so, but my brother in law, who is an executive in the IT department of a major corporation, told them it wasn't. Guess who they believed? -Ken
I can't prove it's spyware, but I can prove they do things against your wishes, see my reply to the grandparent here for more info. I'd highly recommend they get rid of it, there are alternatives that aren't evil.-
I wonder who invests in Weatherbug, the notorious spyware company that spams message boards saying "we are not spyware" ? (They have yet to install spyware that says "we do not spam").
For anyone who doubts Weatherbug's evilness, I can relate a concrete example of it. My Mom had been using Weatherbug, and I let her keep it because it seemed fairly harmless. Then one day last month I checked her computer and a box was popped up saying an update to Weatherbug was available, asking if I wanted to install it. I clicked no, it installed anyway.It took me a while to get rid of it as well, the remove program entry was broken, I had to download the crap again and install it again to finally get rid of it. I suspect it's left a few registry entries I haven't found yet.
Weatherbug may or may not be spyware, but I'm inclined to believe it is. Legit companies don't install upgrades against your consent and make it hard as hell to uninstall their software. That is how spyware/malware generally works though.
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Thats stupid, Its like saying you don't have to agree to Microsofts Eulas when clearly if you want to get anything done in a business world you have to.
Exactly, the government doesn't even enforce the law so it's become entrenched and abused. Only now are companies starting to realize that it's not only illegal but a Bad Idea(tm) to use SSNs to identify everyone. It's sad that someone had the foresight to see this would be a problem (thus the law was created in the first place) but it took it actually becoming a problem for anything to be done.To give you an idea how entrenched it is, my health insurance company just finally changed everyone's ID numbers from SSN to another system last year. Up until then my SSN was printed on my health insurance card, which I have to provide to any doctor/hospital I go to so I receive benefits.
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Now there is nothing wrong with spending money on what makes you happy as long as its within reason, but how many people out there have maxed out credit cards, drive a new car, have a full entertainment package ($80+ cable bills, cell phones with every feature and service imaginable, big "going-out" entertainment budget), and shop out of boredom, all while having little or no savings?
What's annoying is most of the country makes it hard to save on some things, for instance where I live a car is an absolute must, there's almost no public transportation. I really wouldn't mind taking a train or bus to work to save money, but no such luck. I try to save where I can, but truthfully between my necessities (car payment, car insurance, copays on prescriptions, Internet access (I work in IT so this is a necessity), food, gas and student loan payments) I have little left each month. It's highly frustrating to be looking at another 20+ years on the student loans to pay and not seeing the possibility of having significant savings for quite a while.-
This "buy now, pay later, I don't have to plan for my future" is what I'm worried about. A little ID theft here and there won't kill us.
Very true, and it also creates an environment hostile to non-credit card using consumers. I don't have a credit card, don't particularly want one either, and there are times where it's a major problem. Thankfully I do have a check card that works like one through my bank, that's helped a lot and I don't have to worry about overspending.ID Theft is worse than you think though. Even if you find out about it early, the banks and credit card companies aren't terribly interested in helping you. A friend of mine found out someone had applied for a credit card in her name (I forget how she found out, I think she had a fraud warning on her credit report). The card was actually issued, and thankfully not used. It took her two months to get the credit card company that issued it to do anything about it, even though she could prove who she was. They just weren't interested in helping stop the fraud before it happenned, apparently it's easier to just charge it off and let the individual have to deal with the problem on their credit report.
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That's nuts. I can see them trying to require your driver's license, as that's the form of picture ID they'd use to identify you (if they bother, and most don't), but not SSN.
IANAL, but as I recall it's against the law to require a SSN as identification for things like checks. I'd check into it and report them, not that anything's likely to happen, but maybe it will. Identify theft is becoming a massive problem.My bank tries this on me whenever I call to talk to someone they want my account number and SSN to identify me. I always refuse and ask to use an alternate form of identification, a trick one of their CSRs told me about years ago. At least they'll accept an alternate form of ID though, some places refuse.
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Guess you've never worked for government, eh? Embarrass a government official and they'll do everything in their power to lay the blame for their incompetence on your doorstep.
Unfortunately I know this all too well, but it's still something that should be addressed when documents of such importance are allowed to leak. It sounds like this was pretty high level stuff, not just embarassing stuff. From the article: "He'd obtained a log of an IRC chat session in which a hacker named "Myth" copy-and-pasted excerpts of an internal Secret Service memorandum report, and a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty from the Russian Federation. Both documents are described in the Secret Service affidavit as "highly sensitive information pertaining to ongoing USSS criminal cases.""-
Try to remember that the people who work for government aren't James Bond. In fact, most of 'em aren't very bright at all, even the ones who work in intelligence. The agent acted like an incompetent fool because he was an incompetent fool, as are most of his compatriots.
Precisely, which is why I'd like to know he'd been disciplined for screwing up so badly. If he's not he'll just go do it again. If he is he very well may learn his lesson and keep secret stuff encrypted on monitorable networks. I didn't say I wanted him fired, just disciplined, otherwise he's not going to learn anything.It's be best for Opera to allow schools to distribute it to their students. It's very possible that Universities may start forbidding IE usage, and if Opera's available to the students too, they may just get lifelong users. After all you get used to a program after 4+ years of use.
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On the other hand, how can he work as a mole when so much about his identity is already revealed? If the entire world now knows his name, has access to his resume, etc., isn't he at great risk of being identified?
Not really, this stuff all takes place online in forums and IRC so all he has to do is create new identities and work his back into the scene. If he does get exposed, just lather, rinse, repeat. I'm sure the secret service can make sure he has plenty of different IPs to come from to help him mask his identity and location.-
Just because he is reading Secret Service mail doesn't mean it is important. For all we know the mail could read like this: On todays lunch menu we are not going to be having the chicken fajita due to a lack of chicken, we will be having PB & J's. Surely they have secure transmission lines (& methods of encryption) , so why would they send anything of importance over T-Mobiles network?
If you'd RTFA, you'd know that many of things he had access to were important, sensitive and, in an ideal world, should have been encrypted. One good question the article didn't ask is why'd the secret service agent send these things unencrypted over a monitorable network? Personally I'd like to know that he had been disciplined for allowing this security breach to occur.