I used to get calls all the time from "cardholder services". From what I gathered, it's basically a scam where they charge you and then call up your credit card company to ask for a lower rate. Apparently, people who went in for this had their cards billed for thousands. I've asked them repeatedly to remove me from their list to no avail. Here's how I finally got them to stop calling.
First I pressed "1" for a live operator. Now to fuck with them and remain consistent, I made up a cheat sheet in advance. On it I wrote a fake credit card number, an expiration date, a fake "card not present" number, a fake SSN, fake balance, etc. They require you to have at least $3000 in debt and at least $2500 in available credit on at least one card to cover their fees.
One thing they ask for is the customer service number for the card so they can call your bank, which they do while you are on hold. So, I used this page of bank ID numbers when making my fake credit card number, and I also googled my chosen bank's customer service number (I picked Wachovia). Also I rigged the number to validate by the Luhn algorithm in case their systems check for that. This way we have a very plausible but totally fake credit card number which will hopefully pass any initial consistency checking they may do.
So I put this cheat sheet by the phone and waited for the call. Within a few hours, they called.
I answer their questions. First they ask about my debt. I tell them $9000 across two cards. I mention my "Wachovia Mastercard". They acknowledge knowingly and ask me to "verify" the card number "starting with the 5" thus suggesting they already know the card number. All Mastercards start with 5. I give them the fake number. They ask me to "verify" the expiration date. I give them the fake date. They ask for the customer service number on the back of the card. I give them Wahovia's number. They put me on hold for five minutes to call up Wachovia and negotiate me a lower rate.
"Wachovia says it's an invalid number. Can you re-read your card number?" I re-read the same number. They put me on hold again for several minutes. This repeats again. I reassure them that card is valid, that I just used it an hour or so ago, etc. They try again. They get a supervisor. He tries. It keeps coming back invalid. I waste forty five minutes of at least two people's time. Finally, as they apologize for not being able to help me, I calmly explain my ruse. What followed was a string of obscenities that even made my dog gag, followed by them abruptly hanging up.
The article title reminds me of an exhange that occured in a meeting. We were co-developing a project with a customer and one of the customer's programmers was an old-time assembly programmer who never quite got the hang of high-level languages like C++. We were discussing some bug that was found in some of his unreadable code after a week or so of investigation.
My manager: It appears that this issue was found in some code that Bob wrote.
Their manager: But Bob's a great programmer. He can even knows how to code in assembly.
My manager: Great, can you have him stop coding like it's assembly?
I'm posting this anonymously because I'm covered by an NDA, but here are some of what the Chinese have taken:
* A complete inventory of spare parts for the onboard computer system, as well as a list of eBay sellers who specialize in NOS vacuum tubes.
* Atlantis' in-dash stereo has had a Supertramp 8-track tape stuck in it now for over a decade.
* The exact formulation of Bakelite used in the heat-resistant surface tiles.
* Documentation on cross-compound air pumps, lifting injectors, feedwater heaters, and various types of valve gear arrangements.
* Plans for a proposal to convert the shuttle into a parade float.
* Copies of a catalog and an order form from a company called "Estes Models".
* A bootleg copy of the film "October Sky".
I believe the English word you are looking for is "monback". A monback's main responsibility is to get out and watch for problems while the truck is backing up.
Maybe so, but it was probably better than that AMC supercomputer I had back in the early 80s. Damn thing rattled and belched blue smoke everywhere and never did work right. It's no wonder that Chrysler discontinued most of their product line after taking them over.
A pill to prevent cell suicide? Like in jail? Reminds me of the time I was arrested for littering. It was two Thanksgivings ago, that is, two years ago on Thanksgiving...
The cop took me to the jail, he says, "Kid, I'm gonna put you in the cell, I need your wallet and your belt."
I says, "I understand you want my wallet so I don't have any money to spend in the cell, but why do you need my belt?"
He says, "kid, we don't want any hangings." Of course, he was just making sure, because he also took out the toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown.
From what I understand, Cascade B was discovered when a beam of high energy particles was directed at a plate with dried spaghetti crusted on it. The scientists found that the Cascade B removed the dried on food and left no water spots. Further research is needed to determine if Cascade B can be adapted for use in existing dishwashers.
Another problem is that, even if they got the railroad to Fairbanks, the only rail line in Fairbanks just runs down to Seward and has no connections, except by ship, to the rest of North America's rail system.
From Wikipedia:
"The railroad is connected to the lower 48 via three rail barges that sail between the Port of Whittier and Harbor Island in Seattle but does not currently have a fixed land connection with any other railroad lines on the North American network."
In related news, a major roofing manufacturer has announced the "single shingle" roof. It consists of a small plate that is quickly moved about above a building during a rainstorm to block each individual raindrop. This eliminates the "complexity" of asphalt shingles.
In addition to the items in the article, my research has come up with several other items that Apple prototyped but never manufactured. These include:
The iCorvair - Apple's first and only attempt at making a car. It was similar to the Volkswagen in that it was to appeal to the same market and had it's engine in back. Unofrtunately, a design flaw in the suspension gave it a tendency to flip over going around corners.
The eLisa - This was an Apple Lisa with a special AI user interface that emulated a psychiatrist. Focus groups found it annoying to be asked probing, personal questions while trying to get things done, so the project was dropped.
The iPod Cathode - So named for it's use of four EL84 vacuum tubes in the circuit that drives the headphones, this iPod variant had a short battery life and there was no way to dissassemble it to service the tubes.
The Mac Maxi - The end all and be all Macintosh. This was a fully partitionable powerhouse mainframe computer that was the size of a dishwasher (mechanical, not Mexican) with EMC disk drives, a built-in Caterpillar diesel UPS, and it's own recirculated glycol cooling system. This was to be the conceptual opposite of the Mac Mini, but the project was scrapped after the prototype tipped over and killed someone.
The Apple 0 - (pronounced Apple-Naught) This precursor to the Apple I featured a 74LS00 chip hammered into a block of wood as the main processor and had two modes of functionality, called "on" and "off". Users could tell when they were in the "on" mode by the glowing of a small grain-of-wheat light bulb.
If this keeps up, the stars are gonna be marching on Washington, demanding their equal rights. I have a dream, that someday, all stars will be judged not be mass, but by the content of their cores.
The Holy Grail of Console Collecting refers to the Nintendo Entertainment System that Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles played after the last supper. The exact fate of this relic is unknown, but many medieval churches have claimed to possess a joystick or a cartridge or other component of this legendary system. The most convincing relic is the Drop-Lid of Turin which is an angled piece of plastic that is purported to be the "door" from the front of Christ's Nintendo. Carbon dating of the artifact has been inconclusive.
It's probably easiest to use it to extort money from the company you stole it from. That way, you don't have to bother actually finding a buyer, just threatening to should be enough.
If this ring is going to be "one of the most important targets on the planet", maybe they should build it as a series of concentric rings instead of a single ring. Perhaps havethe rings use alternating colors.
Slashdot Mirror
First I pressed "1" for a live operator. Now to fuck with them and remain consistent, I made up a cheat sheet in advance. On it I wrote a fake credit card number, an expiration date, a fake "card not present" number, a fake SSN, fake balance, etc. They require you to have at least $3000 in debt and at least $2500 in available credit on at least one card to cover their fees.
One thing they ask for is the customer service number for the card so they can call your bank, which they do while you are on hold. So, I used this page of bank ID numbers when making my fake credit card number, and I also googled my chosen bank's customer service number (I picked Wachovia). Also I rigged the number to validate by the Luhn algorithm in case their systems check for that. This way we have a very plausible but totally fake credit card number which will hopefully pass any initial consistency checking they may do.
So I put this cheat sheet by the phone and waited for the call. Within a few hours, they called.
I answer their questions. First they ask about my debt. I tell them $9000 across two cards. I mention my "Wachovia Mastercard". They acknowledge knowingly and ask me to "verify" the card number "starting with the 5" thus suggesting they already know the card number. All Mastercards start with 5. I give them the fake number. They ask me to "verify" the expiration date. I give them the fake date. They ask for the customer service number on the back of the card. I give them Wahovia's number. They put me on hold for five minutes to call up Wachovia and negotiate me a lower rate.
"Wachovia says it's an invalid number. Can you re-read your card number?" I re-read the same number. They put me on hold again for several minutes. This repeats again. I reassure them that card is valid, that I just used it an hour or so ago, etc. They try again. They get a supervisor. He tries. It keeps coming back invalid. I waste forty five minutes of at least two people's time. Finally, as they apologize for not being able to help me, I calmly explain my ruse. What followed was a string of obscenities that even made my dog gag, followed by them abruptly hanging up.
And they haven't called me since.
If you want to imagine the future, picture a cold boot attack on a human face, over and over, forever.
Well, it's quite simply really. They've essentially discovered a previously unknown integer that comes between six and seven.
What You Don't Know About Living in Space...
CAN KILL YOU!!!
Sorry, I've been watching the local news again.
It's the space shuttle, so I'm assuming they use an adapter that fits into the in-dash eight track player.
In space, I guess every fart cloud has a silver lining.
The article title reminds me of an exhange that occured in a meeting. We were co-developing a project with a customer and one of the customer's programmers was an old-time assembly programmer who never quite got the hang of high-level languages like C++. We were discussing some bug that was found in some of his unreadable code after a week or so of investigation.
My manager: It appears that this issue was found in some code that Bob wrote.
Their manager: But Bob's a great programmer. He can even knows how to code in assembly.
My manager: Great, can you have him stop coding like it's assembly?
* A complete inventory of spare parts for the onboard computer system, as well as a list of eBay sellers who specialize in NOS vacuum tubes.
* Atlantis' in-dash stereo has had a Supertramp 8-track tape stuck in it now for over a decade.
* The exact formulation of Bakelite used in the heat-resistant surface tiles.
* Documentation on cross-compound air pumps, lifting injectors, feedwater heaters, and various types of valve gear arrangements.
* Plans for a proposal to convert the shuttle into a parade float.
* Copies of a catalog and an order form from a company called "Estes Models".
* A bootleg copy of the film "October Sky".
I believe the English word you are looking for is "monback". A monback's main responsibility is to get out and watch for problems while the truck is backing up.
Maybe so, but it was probably better than that AMC supercomputer I had back in the early 80s. Damn thing rattled and belched blue smoke everywhere and never did work right. It's no wonder that Chrysler discontinued most of their product line after taking them over.
The cop took me to the jail, he says, "Kid, I'm gonna put you in the cell, I need your wallet and your belt."
I says, "I understand you want my wallet so I don't have any money to spend in the cell, but why do you need my belt?"
He says, "kid, we don't want any hangings." Of course, he was just making sure, because he also took out the toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown.
From what I understand, Cascade B was discovered when a beam of high energy particles was directed at a plate with dried spaghetti crusted on it. The scientists found that the Cascade B removed the dried on food and left no water spots. Further research is needed to determine if Cascade B can be adapted for use in existing dishwashers.
From Wikipedia:
"The railroad is connected to the lower 48 via three rail barges that sail between the Port of Whittier and Harbor Island in Seattle but does not currently have a fixed land connection with any other railroad lines on the North American network."
In related news, a major roofing manufacturer has announced the "single shingle" roof. It consists of a small plate that is quickly moved about above a building during a rainstorm to block each individual raindrop. This eliminates the "complexity" of asphalt shingles.
Yes, it will probably be Cuba that develops this first. I for one welcome our cancer-resistant, Communist overlords.
In addition to the items in the article, my research has come up with several other items that Apple prototyped but never manufactured. These include:
The iCorvair - Apple's first and only attempt at making a car. It was similar to the Volkswagen in that it was to appeal to the same market and had it's engine in back. Unofrtunately, a design flaw in the suspension gave it a tendency to flip over going around corners.
The eLisa - This was an Apple Lisa with a special AI user interface that emulated a psychiatrist. Focus groups found it annoying to be asked probing, personal questions while trying to get things done, so the project was dropped.
The iPod Cathode - So named for it's use of four EL84 vacuum tubes in the circuit that drives the headphones, this iPod variant had a short battery life and there was no way to dissassemble it to service the tubes.
The Mac Maxi - The end all and be all Macintosh. This was a fully partitionable powerhouse mainframe computer that was the size of a dishwasher (mechanical, not Mexican) with EMC disk drives, a built-in Caterpillar diesel UPS, and it's own recirculated glycol cooling system. This was to be the conceptual opposite of the Mac Mini, but the project was scrapped after the prototype tipped over and killed someone.
The Apple 0 - (pronounced Apple-Naught) This precursor to the Apple I featured a 74LS00 chip hammered into a block of wood as the main processor and had two modes of functionality, called "on" and "off". Users could tell when they were in the "on" mode by the glowing of a small grain-of-wheat light bulb.
No wait, you're right, it is Hedy.
If this keeps up, the stars are gonna be marching on Washington, demanding their equal rights. I have a dream, that someday, all stars will be judged not be mass, but by the content of their cores.
For AMD Success Means Problems, and also, to shake your booty means to wiggle one's butt. Permit me to demonstrate.
Yeah, no kidding, Ierusalimschy isn't a name, it's a bad Scrabble hand.
I did my own test to see if copper wire was a fast as fiber.
Day One
Ate a bowl of fiber. Bowel movement within two hours. Pretty fast.
Day Two
Ate a bowl of copper wire. Severe internal bleeding.
Ultimately, results were inconclusive as the emergency surgery on day two negated any possible effects of the copper wire.
From the Dictionary of Christian Theology:
The Holy Grail of Console Collecting refers to the Nintendo Entertainment System that Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles played after the last supper. The exact fate of this relic is unknown, but many medieval churches have claimed to possess a joystick or a cartridge or other component of this legendary system. The most convincing relic is the Drop-Lid of Turin which is an angled piece of plastic that is purported to be the "door" from the front of Christ's Nintendo. Carbon dating of the artifact has been inconclusive.
At the company I work for, the late founder was spinning in his grave so fast we hooked up a generator to him and use it to power our datacenter.
It's probably easiest to use it to extort money from the company you stole it from. That way, you don't have to bother actually finding a buyer, just threatening to should be enough.
If this ring is going to be "one of the most important targets on the planet", maybe they should build it as a series of concentric rings instead of a single ring. Perhaps havethe rings use alternating colors.