I read in Reader's Digest many years ago about a plant manager who loathed meetings. A worker was injured on the job, which prompted a series of long "safety meetings." This propmpted the manager to post signs throughout the plant that read:
I think the ultimate future of malware will encompass biometric and RFID. Rather than key loggers, we will see biometric image capture (e.g. a scan/image capture of the user's thumbprint). Or capturing RFID patterns.
I still say purveyors and criminal users of malware should be subject to life prison sentences if not death.
The suit and settlement should have included ALL Toshiba laptops. My wife's Satellite (forget the model bumber, and it is in the shop--AGAIN--so can't glance over and read it) has failed catostrophically three times since purchase. The first time they replaced the entire machine with a new one. The second time, they replaced the motherboard. Both of these repairs were under warranty. The third failure occured 14 days after the warranty expired. The service center wanted just over half of the original purchase price to replace the motherboard--again.
We said screw it and a re now shopping for a replacement with a good reliability record.
You are quite correct. I had a most interesting conversation with a "customer service" rep in India whrn my ISP implemented an anti-spam program that sucked canal water. All I wanted to do was turn the damned thing off. The rep was sticking to his script. I asked him what his real name was (based on the strong Hindi accent, it certainly wasn't "Jeremy"), and he finally lightened up when I asked about the weather in his Pradesh of India. He then told me how to deactivate the damnable "service."
The decline of manners is responsible for a great deal of societal degradation. Simple manners reduces conflicts and friction. Or, as someone wrote a couple of thousand years ago, "A soft word turns away wrath."
It took IBM to establish a standard and "legitimize" the PC. It will take another IBM-class major player to establish a music standard format. My guess it will be Apple and iTunes.
"...found he was inflating timesheets and overbilling, among other things."
Well, again, my practice/philosophy was "make a customer, not a sale." One way I accomplished that was that when I bid a job and my actual hours or expenses were lest than estimated for the bid, I invoiced less than the bid amout to reflect that. If my time or expenses esceeded the bid amount, I never invoiced for more than the bid and absorbed the loss. This both astonished and impressed my clients.
"* The client gets a copy of the source code, and permission to use and modify it for internal use only (i.e. They couldn't go and resell it to another company)."
For an independent contractor/consultant, this is a bad business model. Get the client locked into your services to maximize profitability. Bit don't gouge them--treat each clinet as a "customer" rather than a "sale." Give them a few extras above and beyond, but do not "give" yourself out of business.
If you contract for a custom hardware part, you get and own the part. If you contract for a custom injection mold with which to make the part, you own the mold and can make all the parts you want. Same with software. You can buy the solution, ot buy the source. If you buy the source, it costs a LOT more because the creator cannot sell the same product to others that have the same need.
"I've seen this tactic before... I wouldn't work that way."
Bullshit.
I did consulting work. Clients asked for a specific solution. I gave it to them. Their needs changed, I modified the original solution--at additional cost.
If people with brains set abuse policy at ISPs, they would not have to monitor or go looking for infected machines. http://www.spamcop.net/ notifies hundreds of ISPs daily that machines in their network are spam bombing the world, and most (especially the big ones, like Comcast and Roadunner), do not do squat about it.
Policy should be: "If your machine sends spam, even without your knowledge, you WILL be disconnected."
Same policy should apply to virus-infected machines, but the big ISPs just do not give a flying fig. Every time some clueless user's machinme starts sending me viruses, I report it to the source ISP. Smaller companies usually take action and at least notify the customer. But when it is a big ISP, the virues come daily (sometimes multiple times daily) for weeks on end. The real pisser is the source IP address is always the same, so identifying the infected machine is not diffucult, they just won't do it.
Well, if you can cut anything resembling a circle using a 2-axis, hand-operated milling table, all I can say is you are one helluva better machinist than I am.
Slashdot Mirror
Ditto for eBay--spoof@ebay.com.
Always include original full headers.
You might also want to submit phishing scams to reportphishing@antiphishing.org.
"...paste the content in a spelling and grammar checking tool, and you can eliminate a good chunk of the mistakes. How hard is that, really?"
What happens to hypertext and URL links when you paste it back in?
I read in Reader's Digest many years ago about a plant manager who loathed meetings. A worker was injured on the job, which prompted a series of long "safety meetings." This propmpted the manager to post signs throughout the plant that read:
Work Safely! Accidents cause Meetings!
I think the ultimate future of malware will encompass biometric and RFID. Rather than key loggers, we will see biometric image capture (e.g. a scan/image capture of the user's thumbprint). Or capturing RFID patterns.
I still say purveyors and criminal users of malware should be subject to life prison sentences if not death.
The suit and settlement should have included ALL Toshiba laptops. My wife's Satellite (forget the model bumber, and it is in the shop--AGAIN--so can't glance over and read it) has failed catostrophically three times since purchase. The first time they replaced the entire machine with a new one. The second time, they replaced the motherboard. Both of these repairs were under warranty. The third failure occured 14 days after the warranty expired. The service center wanted just over half of the original purchase price to replace the motherboard--again.
We said screw it and a re now shopping for a replacement with a good reliability record.
And I thought I was the only Slashdot geek in the Springtown area (I am actually closer to Poolville). The Slashdot phenomenon invades rural America!
Oh, shit. Well, despite the overly-enthusiastic makeup, Bob's wife is a babe. If your friend's wife is likewise reminiscient, he's a lucky man.
"My sister keeps one of those talking stuffed animals beside the phone for when they call."
Laughing my ass off!
You are quite correct. I had a most interesting conversation with a "customer service" rep in India whrn my ISP implemented an anti-spam program that sucked canal water. All I wanted to do was turn the damned thing off. The rep was sticking to his script. I asked him what his real name was (based on the strong Hindi accent, it certainly wasn't "Jeremy"), and he finally lightened up when I asked about the weather in his Pradesh of India. He then told me how to deactivate the damnable "service."
...if it cracks the glass. Somebody who responded to all those" enhancement" spams? Or--omigod--Bob of Enzyte fame actually taking himself seriously?
Now, THAT is funny!
The decline of manners is responsible for a great deal of societal degradation. Simple manners reduces conflicts and friction. Or, as someone wrote a couple of thousand years ago, "A soft word turns away wrath."
It's dupe, dupe, dupe, dupeilicious!
Yes, you are correct. I was half drunk when I wrote the parent post. Thanks for the correction.
Back in the day when memory was at a premium (64k-bytes max), self-replicating code was the bane of both "hackers" and sys admins.
(yawn)
It took IBM to establish a standard and "legitimize" the PC. It will take another IBM-class major player to establish a music standard format. My guess it will be Apple and iTunes.
"...found he was inflating timesheets and overbilling, among other things."
Well, again, my practice/philosophy was "make a customer, not a sale." One way I accomplished that was that when I bid a job and my actual hours or expenses were lest than estimated for the bid, I invoiced less than the bid amout to reflect that. If my time or expenses esceeded the bid amount, I never invoiced for more than the bid and absorbed the loss. This both astonished and impressed my clients.
"* The client gets a copy of the source code, and permission to use and modify it for internal use only (i.e. They couldn't go and resell it to another company)."
For an independent contractor/consultant, this is a bad business model. Get the client locked into your services to maximize profitability. Bit don't gouge them--treat each clinet as a "customer" rather than a "sale." Give them a few extras above and beyond, but do not "give" yourself out of business.
If you contract for a custom hardware part, you get and own the part. If you contract for a custom injection mold with which to make the part, you own the mold and can make all the parts you want. Same with software. You can buy the solution, ot buy the source. If you buy the source, it costs a LOT more because the creator cannot sell the same product to others that have the same need.
"I've seen this tactic before... I wouldn't work that way."
Bullshit.
I did consulting work. Clients asked for a specific solution. I gave it to them. Their needs changed, I modified the original solution--at additional cost.
What's the problem?
If people with brains set abuse policy at ISPs, they would not have to monitor or go looking for infected machines. http://www.spamcop.net/ notifies hundreds of ISPs daily that machines in their network are spam bombing the world, and most (especially the big ones, like Comcast and Roadunner), do not do squat about it.
Policy should be: "If your machine sends spam, even without your knowledge, you WILL be disconnected."
Same policy should apply to virus-infected machines, but the big ISPs just do not give a flying fig. Every time some clueless user's machinme starts sending me viruses, I report it to the source ISP. Smaller companies usually take action and at least notify the customer. But when it is a big ISP, the virues come daily (sometimes multiple times daily) for weeks on end. The real pisser is the source IP address is always the same, so identifying the infected machine is not diffucult, they just won't do it.
1. To enter and steal from (a building or other premises).
2. To commit burglary against: "The second-floor tenants have been burglarized twice."
It's a real word. Look it up.
Well, if you can cut anything resembling a circle using a 2-axis, hand-operated milling table, all I can say is you are one helluva better machinist than I am.
Well, I was typing very fast trying to get first post....
Is that you Douglas Adams?