Maybe if the Capsaisin doesn't kill your prostate, it will kill your ass...
Hot Child in the Shitty?
"I fell down, on my burning sphincter fire, and flames turned brown, and the stench was getting higher... Down down down, sphincter fire, sphincter fire..."
In one place where I worked for a month and half I had to hear that fucking song ten fucking times. That and 15 or 20 others that always came up no matter WHAT the customers picked.
I'll eat 5 thumb-sized Habanero peppers a day for a week, maybe a month, so long as I never have to hear that song more than once a year...
I saw at CompUSA in the Apple section a product for OSX, about $299, which allows users to run XP (2k as well?) on their OSX-based computers.
But, for $299.... Is this one motivation for people to get XP running? To bypass the high price? Could this be part of the reason Apple is not making too much noise? So they don't inadvertently spur on what is happening?
Maybe I'm missing something....
Segue ("Segway")
But, something that REALLY turned me on was a demo I saw in an Apple Store a few days ago: Garage Band demo. Goddammm, I wish that ran in Linux. Is there something like that which is OS-agnostic or available for Linux users? It would be VERY nice.
Imagine Paul Hardcastle's envy now... Instead of blowing tubes, fluttering his eyelids and shaking his hips and tapping his feet and deftly moving two arms to make up for not having 6 or 7 arms...
Anyway, the sales guy said I can get GarageBand as part of iLife. If I had only THREE OS's I could choose from, they'd be:
1. Linux-based 2. OSX-based 3. Linux-based or run through WINE, Win4Lin (which I currently do), or Cedega (if they'd even make it possible to run SmartSuite run.. Or, maybe I'm missing something)
A friend and I once argued over the "generosity of" well, that man...
I argued (and felt my point stood):
"C"mon, do you HONESTLY THINK gates would donate money to any charity or organization if they said, 'Oh, and we'll help save infrastructure costs by using Open Source tools. We just need money to get computers...'?"
He thinks gates WOULD donate money to charitable or research groups even IF they don't use and state they will NEVER use windows-based computers.
I think "Vast" has "buy me" written all over it, too. Maybe Google will buy Vast and apply it to other other products... Google could aggregate all KINDS of stuff:
-- reselling movies/videos (original media), -- computer parts -- car part (not just cars themselves) -- second-hand clothing -- airline tickets
Anyone feel Google might get into the auctioning business? I know they say "do no evil" and maybe crowding into space another biz is in might be akin to doing evil, but if Google feels pressure to "expand or die" (or submit to some other Ferengi Rule of Acquisition: "MORE is GOOD; ALL is BETTER."... But, I suppose they won't try "Once you have the Customer's money, NEVER give it back."
Or, "It never hurts to thank the customer when you (screw them over); that way, you can come back and (screw them again).", heheh
Seriously, tho, has anyone else dug around in techcrunch's site?
Looking ONLY at the Japanese translations and not the original Chinese characters and looking for a relevant meaning, I looked up in JquickTrans (Bought at store... maybe Fry's or MicroCenter, a few years ago...)
of 7 possible meanings, "e"'s most relevant entry is:
picture, drawing, painting, sketch =============
of 13 possible meanings, "ki" 's most relevant entry would be:
chronicle
=======
I found ONE entry for "ga", and it is moth.
==========
of 5 possible meanings, "eki"s most relevant could be:
(vs) gain, benefit, profit, use, advantage, being beneficial (useful, profitable, valuable)
===
"kiga" has several meanings/readings:
Hunger, starvation
daily life
hunger
=======
As for "ekika"
there is also the meaning "liquefaction"
Sometimes, people might mix up the particles "ka" with "ga". Maybe this is intentional in this case? Maybe they think they'll undermine netmeeting via some "liquefaction"
Hmmm, imagine if this thing were used for fish farther out to sea... which fishing client do you alert first?
Client A has word the fish are circling in their exclusive economic zone.
Client B is told the fish are coming to their side of the EEZ, or maybe heading out to international waters.
Party C (not a client) jumps them both and snatches the bulk of the school of fish/tuna (or, pod of whales/calves if that's what they turn out to be...)
Who's open to law suit.
Imagine if this is used to track whales, and to head off the whaling fleets "studying the whales"... What if Green Peace has or gets into this act and REALLY starts disrupting whalers. Is interfering with "whaling studies" an assault on the "national sovereignty perimeter" around those fishing boats? What if a destroyer conveniently shows up to aid the whaler, then sets up an "enforceable" (with guns) perimeter....
Things could get dicey, and someone'll be saying, "Sorry, Charlie..."
All the right, strapping sensual buzzwords...
on
Cocaine Biosensor
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· Score: 1
"attaching a special"... "an aptamer to a gold electrode."... "...the aptamer tightly hugs..." "...and leans over so that a metal tag can touch the gold surface. This causes a spike in a plot of current versus voltage when the electrode is attached to a machine called a cyclic voltmeter."
Maybe they should bunch up under the cone of silence?
Maybe they'll trade in their cell phones for shoe phones and PDAs for spiral-bound notepads?
Seems to me that IT and unions are like water and oil: They'll only under EXTREMELY harsh conditions and not be a normal mix. I TWICE was in unions and didn't know: once as a 411 operator and another time, before that, in retail sales at a now-defunct formerly-major chain. In each case I was NOT told I was in one until AFTER I was hired, and I was paying money to self-serving entities. My take (a limited one) is this: If I'm FIREABLE, FIRE me. I don't need some org covering my ass when I should be fired. I don't need the costs of goods going thru the fucking roof to the point that I can't afford to buy what I make or sale for the company. I like speaking for MYSELF; I don't need some org talking for me (I don't even let the current occupant of the oval office speak for me; I do my OWN speaking!) and telling me not to cross a line, and so on.
Now, I realize the goods I purchase probably all went thru union hands, from raw goods to WIP to FG, to shipped product and shelved, and even rung at the cash register. But, that doesn't mean I need to join one. Seems like IT is of the last bastions not skimmed/dipped into. Imagine if IT workers went into a union: We'd be PISSED. It's one thing going thru a temp agency, costing a would-be employere TWICE (sometimes twice) what we're getting paid. Now, if IT were unionized, WHO'D get that money, even if our checks are scraped of $100 to $300 per month: Charity? No, some org preserving itself. Hell, if I'm going to lose $300 a month from my check it's going to be in a direction of MY goddam choosing, not just because, "Well, those are the dues...."
Imagine if militaries were unionized. I remember when I joined the "Nav" and we were told that in the Navy there is NO SUCH THING AS STRIKING. Hell, in war time (hopefully a REAL war, not this half-baked shit scam were foisting on the world right now...) "going on strike" could be punishable by death. To some extent, massive strikes are a massive destructive act: downline SOMEbody's gonna eat those costs, usually the consumer. Anybody remember the cost of the Long Beach strikes a few years ago? BILL-F*KING-IONS. COG UP. COLA?
Probably said too much here... might come back to haunt my ass one day...
Yes, I would, if they got 90% into the project and just up-and-quit on me. Indeed, I would.
But, if I can assume you're saying (and I do have a FEW reservations about that guy) is that he indeed deleted THEIR information, then he's absolutely going to be part of that ashen reside he created. He should have been more surgical, more precise and deleted ONLY what what his. If he emailed to the subjet of his itinerant or still-birthed company via his now-former employer's server, then he was dumb to not have realize they could reconstruct his conversations. But, if he's that smart (enough to use the delete tool he found), then he probably used another service provider, and THAT then may become the subject of the discovery process... (hehe) IFFFF they can get him to say who forwarded the mail (assuming it's not his own ISP, which might be a starting point for the DA).
Now, if he only made a few notes to himself, and their pressure to bring in the laptop got on his nerves and he had or sought out a delete tool, he probably got REEEAAAALLLL sloppy or unlucky and deleted so much stuff that they could not HELP but notice "ashes" in the disk.
In his situation, he should have just asked for permission than expecting to act without their blessing. He could have structured the deal, asked to have that client, then promised to take on business more than say, 25 miles away and not in the core interest area of the former employer. All KINDS of deals could have been hammered out, but if they're NOT being "specious pieces of shit", then he indeed IS a dipstick and will, in retrospect (as if I might see the testimonial), get fragged, his due.
Anyway, this IS indeed a mess. Both sides could negotiate. Contracts don't ALWAYS get enforced, especially if they saw potential to let him go out and rake in business, then turn around and buy him up.. maybe even fire him, or keep him and promote him. They got too emotional too fast; he got too greedy and deleted and acted too fast. Now, that company he targetted might walk away from BOTH of them... if the court doesn't/hasn't roped them in into the court room to ascertain their possible influencing role in this....
Would be funny, too, if they perse, umm, PROSEcution said, "At that point the computer became a nodeless nodal node... a rogue node under your control..."
Ahhh, this for somereason reminds me of Evan Brown at www.unixguru.com
Hold a sec... Did he log on via a remote, or via the keyboard? There's a slight nuanced difference. So many others pointed out that he could have had credit card numbers, porn, or something damning but not business mission-essential. Reasonable companies grant some leeway and only sue if there's a REASON.
If he's trying to illegally partner with that company, the courts can stop him. But ONLY if the relationship is damaging to the former employer. If that employer can't offer services or products that the employee sees a need for and his employer STILL won't offer to that company whose needs seem to have enticed this guy to quit and go into business for himself, then shame on his former employers. And on the judges.
They ought to be CONGRATULATING him. "Welcome BOB! Welcome to CORPORATE AMER'KA. Pull your sell up by your bootstraps! Meet us at Santini's at 6PM for a few martinis on the rocks... Let's make a symbiotic relationship here, if you think you don't mind..."
But, someone got hostile, pissed in the vinegar, or snapped the vines and that was that.
All too many people get hostile instead of trying to amicably, or tenuously work from a DISTANCE that is not imposed by some mean-assed, all-exclusive-and-exclusionary-screw-you type of contract. That's half the problem WITH this country: "grabbing hands, grab all they can, everything counts in large amounts" (to borrow words from a music group I used to listen to...)
Well, u know what? My heart pumps PISS for that company. If they were smart, they'd have thought, "Hey, HE'S still in possession of OUR laptop. Let's feign a meeting, get him to bring it in for an iPod or some device issuance, and then SNATCH the laptop from him and give him is severance or owed money and escort him out the door with a copy of the no-compete/non-disclosure."
But, no, they effed up. Royally. The laptop was in his POSSESSION, which is what they must've crossed their fingers over. If it were me that were the employee, of COURSE I'd take my chances and delete my stuff IF I saw this coming. I myself was laid off, and deleted stuff-- LOTS of stuff from the company's laptop. But, I did ask, first, AND they even let me burn CD's of my stuff. We didn't quibble over he niceties and legalities of the employment contract (the were the 2nd company to own the one I'd joined).
Legally, the guy is probably IN deep doodoo. But, if his actions aren't destroying, hampering, libeling or defaming the company, the the management is just being a bunch of asses to make an example of him. Given all the tech that exists, they could have installed keystroke monitoring software BEFORE issuing him the laptop. Then -- if they wanted--they could have admonished him that he may or may not be monitored. They screwed up. They tipped him off while their goods were in his possession. They knew they had a potentially hostile situation on hand, and either they or maybe neither side wanted to part amicably.
This also goes right to the heart of the problem with no-compete. If they company they want to woo is hostile toward them and they prefer this guy who quit for them, and if that company was never on the target list or at least wasn't wooed by the company management and if they didn't say we want this company, even tho they don't want us, so all employees, keep in mind they're ours, even if our operations get hit by the next Al Qaida attack, that company is our prospect...", then a human's got to work and got to eat. And, given the fact that technology is pervasive, and that it's not the 1930s or 1950's anymore where competing with your employer might mean working 2 streets down more than it does today, and that there are tons of companies, but only so many with matching interests, then non-competes ought to be tossed out except in extremely rare cases that are anticipated by COURTS in advance to protect the worker./begin rant here
Ahh, but that's the problem. Government is run by or influenced more by corps than by workers. So, that's also why intellectual property law is what it is now-- pro tems and ex businessmen rubbing out entrepreneurial types like myself-- every damned where we turn in a hi-tech environment, we're under the gun, under hostile eyes. ANY freakin' type of database interface I make conceivably could be in the sphere of my potential or some of my past employers, and if I disclose, I'm at risk that someone in the company will tell an outside buddy with more resources than I could ever muster. If I don't disclose, I'm screwed if I patent it and they get greedy and sue for my patent under some frivolous crap loophole. I even once worked at a MORTGAGE company which had an IT department, and I was at risk of losing my employment over NDAs and disclosures because their "rate shop" software encroached upon (or they thought I was encroaching upon them with) my hobby which was in that I was trying to make two disparate numbers moving at two different angles and speeds intersect when one was avoiding and another was chasing. I wasn't even designing a freaking RATE SHOP ENGINE! Goddamn California (and, any other state for that matter) laws looking out for big business and threatening tech workers who can't escape the damned corporate world of grabbing-hands IT officers looking for money outside their company mission./end rant here
(my effing blood pressure's up too much now to tirade anymore about that problem with a past employer....)
I read most of -- maybe 95% -- of the original article, but I did NOT read the court papers nor try to look for them.
So, this is on the assumption that he SELECTIVELY deleted files and didn't delete day-to-day financials, IT-installed AV software, IT-installed firewall and logger software..
But, since he used a secure delete:
-- HOW does IAC know WHAT he deleted?
-- WHY be such specious pieces of shit and sue him for something they cannot prove/trying to prove the unknowable?
If he once had a company proposal, but then had his own ideas and prototyped them, but left the company-bound original in place then the stuff he made for himself is HIS HIS HIS! Not the company's "just because he put it there".
If he put a pic of his family, they'd deleted it without a second thought. But, because it may be or they FEEL it's in their "sphere of interest", of course they'll want a copy. But, too bad. If they had a plan to expand and didn't include him, and liked his ideas but said, "See ya, we don't need ya", and he felt they we're using HIS ideas (which, if he's smart, can be reconstructed by any MBA observing the business potential, studying the companies and entities involved, and using some wit and imagination...), then if they didn't have them in their meetings minutes, they're stupid.
Now, IF he produced the stuff on COMPANY time FOR the company and it was stuff they TOLD him to make as an in-process and end-product set of information, then he shouldn't have deleted it. But, if he, for instance, installed (say, with their permission) his own licensed software and produced data for them, but say, deleted their data, then they have NO damn business expecting to keep "evidence of his Corel (or whatever) copy". He could have had Maya, Alias, ACAD, who knows. And, if they had ACAD, but he drew floorplans of an office he intends to have fitted out, THAT, TOO is none of their goddam business.
Sour grapes. Sometimes, some COMPANIES just don't get it. Same goes for those companies whic hire programmers and and then "compensate" them to intentionally embed, encrypt and then claim as "their own intellectual property" some GPL/GNU software they goddam didn't create, and then adamantly pass off and defend as their own and expect smarter employees to sign NDAs and Non-Competes over stuff the company didn't create.
I hope that guy is smart, has a smart lawyer and that he actually IS in the right. But, unless we actually see the court transcripts, get our own forensics team on the hard drive (assuming the company didn't distrub the 1s and 0s any more than the ex-employee did), then it's going to be hard for any geek/nerd on this site to say much of anything meaningful without laying out some reasonable scenarios. I guess....
Quote from parent: "Unfortunately, once it's verified, it will output the whole message, leading the user to believe that the whole message was signed."
Well, then a little GOOD social engineering could resolve this, right? Some prepend and append markups could help identify what was injected.
Example: (Pre-encrypted)
Begin Encrypted Body HERE:
We snatched the subject at building 232. Skyjack arrived at the field and extracted subject at 2200 hours, and headed 225 True north along evac corridor. Diverted to SSW 45 seconds later, avoiding....
End Encrypted Body HERE.
======= Now, the injected part might be:
You are discouraged from complying with the contents of this message. fasd;;o7fp 2;4j2;o8ps98f j3;r
Begin Encrypted Body HERE:
We snatched the subject at building 232. Skyjack arrived at the field and extracted subject at 2200 hours, and headed 225 True north along evac corridor. Diverted to SSW 45 seconds later, avoiding....
End Encrypted Body HERE.
485wiapeow8r-934-5834u
==========
OK, so is this good enough? Everyone? Anyone?
Alternatively, the message could be sent in duplicate, via another transmission method, or the first decrypt could contain the raw message, but the confirmation (if speed is not of the essence) could be in a plain text message with some of the NON-CLASSIFIED text in the same sequence. Having received it from another secure channel, the authentication could be had by comparing the sensitive with the non-sensitive "sanitized" version. Besides, how would Uncle Sam know when and what the contents of the out-of-channel authentication message be? You could be sending a red herring in the encrypted message JUST to see if they're tampering with your traffic...
Now, if you want something to REALLY worry about... consider your using Amarok to receive songs. How do you KNOW that the packets entering your machine are SAFE. So much CPU processing is going on with your KDE or Gnome GUI and any music scopes and rotating desktops that you really can't KNOW WHAT the hell is in your machine even if you real-time scan or spot-check. Unless you've got a quantum computer or a brain-machine interface with your brain able to process terabytes to the terabyte power, (and enough hours in the day) how will you KNOW your machine isn't back-door attacked by NSA or someone smarter than you. Even if you run Tripwire and other stuff, do you REALY check ALL those checksums. Don't know bout U, but I change enough files all day to just not CARE anymore. Well, except to hope no one's PLANTING stuff or defacing my files.
I am sure Digel, tums and Rolaids won't do shit for this kind of gas.
Insta-Bake/EZ-Bake Oven of the Masses?
Oh, given the proximity of the of the topics in the main page... (terror financing) this would be the ULTIMATE terror weapon if it could be weaponized... you only need to be a government with the apparati (?, hehee -ti, or -tus?) and the WILLINGness to use it... Might instigate a new dictionary addition:
TERRORIZATION (n, v): (aka terror-forming) the result of the conversion process of or the action of conversion of otherwise innocuous substances and devices into weapons of mass destruction with a dose of terrorizing for the suppression of or obliteration of peoples and governments despised by the users of said weapon. (DAMN! A lot of "Ofs"...)
Who needs FAEs, nukes, knives and bunker busters when you've got PLASMA. Yeh, I guess the users could be called "The Plasmatics", or "Plasma Cabal" if they order the use of this on another nation.
But, imagine a chain of this stuff slitherin' around in sewers and canals...
OTOH, dropping a few buckets of these down the gullets of Pinatubo and St. Helens will be like Pepto-Bismol for volcanos.
KHAAAAn-KHAAAAN--KHAAAAAN- dahar, anyone....
Re:Pleasure... But, can it climb the hell out of
on
Tree Climbing Robot
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· Score: 1
AHh, my man, but to quote it near-properly... u gotta yell it out like:
"HLILLIUN!!! Da BITCH is fallin' outta TREES AGAIN!!!" hehehehe
Ohh.. man... so "brutiful", Damn! If I hadn't polished off the last my Thrifty's brand stuff last night, I could have taunted you with, "I-I-I got summm I-I-ce CREE-EEM. I got su-uh-uhm IYYCE-CREAM. YOO don't HA'E NONE. Cuz YOO CAN'T AFFOD-T. 'Cuz YOH- dad's an alcoHOLic; and yo' famly's ohnn WELfare... Ice-cream Ice-cream Ice-Cream... HA!!!!
heheheh....
Well.. Guess I gotta say... "Thrift's Thrift's THRIFTY'S.. HA!!" n git me sum of dat good stuff.. Mocah Almond Fudge and Pistacio hand-packed pints... And I BETTER not drop it on da ground, heheh
(Remember the dog shit so old it didn't stink anymore? It was so old it was part of the household FURNITURE!) heheh
Re:Pleasure... But, can it climb the hell out of
on
Tree Climbing Robot
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· Score: 1
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe if the Capsaisin doesn't kill your prostate, it will kill your ass...
Hot Child in the Shitty?
"I fell down, on my burning sphincter fire, and flames turned brown, and the stench was getting higher... Down down down, sphincter fire, sphincter fire..."
In one place where I worked for a month and half I had to hear that fucking song ten fucking times. That and 15 or 20 others that always came up no matter WHAT the customers picked.
I'll eat 5 thumb-sized Habanero peppers a day for a week, maybe a month, so long as I never have to hear that song more than once a year...
understimate that man.... (or, his puppeteers...)
I got a little Karma to burn, I think...
I saw at CompUSA in the Apple section a product for OSX, about $299, which allows users to run XP (2k as well?) on their OSX-based computers.
But, for $299.... Is this one motivation for people to get XP running? To bypass the high price? Could this be part of the reason Apple is not making too much noise? So they don't inadvertently spur on what is happening?
Maybe I'm missing something....
Segue ("Segway")
But, something that REALLY turned me on was a demo I saw in an Apple Store a few days ago: Garage Band demo. Goddammm, I wish that ran in Linux. Is there something like that which is OS-agnostic or available for Linux users? It would be VERY nice.
Imagine Paul Hardcastle's envy now... Instead of blowing tubes, fluttering his eyelids and shaking his hips and tapping his feet and deftly moving two arms to make up for not having 6 or 7 arms...
Anyway, the sales guy said I can get GarageBand as part of iLife. If I had only THREE OS's I could choose from, they'd be:
1. Linux-based
2. OSX-based
3. Linux-based or run through WINE, Win4Lin (which I currently do), or Cedega (if they'd even make it possible to run SmartSuite run.. Or, maybe I'm missing something)
DS
"Dual booting is unpractical"
But, NOT unpossible....
(Sorry, I just HAD to..."
A friend and I once argued over the "generosity of" well, that man...
I argued (and felt my point stood):
"C"mon, do you HONESTLY THINK gates would donate money to any charity or organization if they said, 'Oh, and we'll help save infrastructure costs by using Open Source tools. We just need money to get computers...'?"
He thinks gates WOULD donate money to charitable or research groups even IF they don't use and state they will NEVER use windows-based computers.
Am I "misunderestimating" gates?
This is fore REAL (points to rifle)... This is for FUN (points to groin)...
So, I wonder if these robots can have a REAL hung, slung gun. With a robot, you can mount the gun ANYwear (anywhere)...
Deal with those robots by spraying sand, wire filaments, and acid bombs in their path.
Tie them up by deploying skeet-shot mounts in their way and have them waste their fucking ammo before they even reach their objective.
Hmmm... another project having to be ?"rethunk"?
I looked at some of the techcrunch stuff for March:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/
and ran across "Vast".
I think "Vast" has "buy me" written all over it, too. Maybe Google will buy Vast and apply it to other other products... Google could aggregate all KINDS of stuff:
-- reselling movies/videos (original media),
-- computer parts
-- car part (not just cars themselves)
-- second-hand clothing
-- airline tickets
Anyone feel Google might get into the auctioning business? I know they say "do no evil" and maybe crowding into space another biz is in might be akin to doing evil, but if Google feels pressure to "expand or die" (or submit to some other Ferengi Rule of Acquisition: "MORE is GOOD; ALL is BETTER."... But, I suppose they won't try "Once you have the Customer's money, NEVER give it back."
Or, "It never hurts to thank the customer when you (screw them over); that way, you can come back and (screw them again).", heheh
Seriously, tho, has anyone else dug around in techcrunch's site?
Looking ONLY at the Japanese translations and not the original Chinese characters and looking for a relevant meaning, I looked up in JquickTrans (Bought at store... maybe Fry's or MicroCenter, a few years ago...)
of 7 possible meanings, "e"'s most relevant entry is:
picture, drawing, painting, sketch
=============
of 13 possible meanings, "ki" 's most relevant entry would be:
chronicle
=======
I found ONE entry for "ga", and it is moth.
==========
of 5 possible meanings, "eki"s most relevant could be:
(vs) gain, benefit, profit, use, advantage, being beneficial (useful, profitable, valuable)
===
"kiga" has several meanings/readings:
Hunger, starvation
daily life
hunger
=======
As for "ekika"
there is also the meaning "liquefaction"
Sometimes, people might mix up the particles "ka" with "ga". Maybe this is intentional in this case? Maybe they think they'll undermine netmeeting via some "liquefaction"
Talk about going on a "fishing expedition"...
Hmmm, imagine if this thing were used for fish farther out to sea... which fishing client do you alert first?
Client A has word the fish are circling in their exclusive economic zone.
Client B is told the fish are coming to their side of the EEZ, or maybe heading out to international waters.
Party C (not a client) jumps them both and snatches the bulk of the school of fish/tuna (or, pod of whales/calves if that's what they turn out to be...)
Who's open to law suit.
Imagine if this is used to track whales, and to head off the whaling fleets "studying the whales"... What if Green Peace has or gets into this act and REALLY starts disrupting whalers. Is interfering with "whaling studies" an assault on the "national sovereignty perimeter" around those fishing boats? What if a destroyer conveniently shows up to aid the whaler, then sets up an "enforceable" (with guns) perimeter....
Things could get dicey, and someone'll be saying, "Sorry, Charlie..."
"attaching a special"... "an aptamer to a gold electrode."... "...the aptamer tightly hugs..." "...and leans over so that a metal tag can touch the gold surface. This causes a spike in a plot of current versus voltage when the electrode is attached to a machine called a cyclic voltmeter."
heheh Funny... slash imageword: "straps"
If they threaten KAOS, then SOMEone will threaten Control.
Maybe they won't be satisfied until Hymie:
http://www.tvacres.com/robots_hymie.htm
comes along and takes their jobs.
Maybe they should bunch up under the cone of silence?
Maybe they'll trade in their cell phones for shoe phones and PDAs for spiral-bound notepads?
Seems to me that IT and unions are like water and oil: They'll only under EXTREMELY harsh conditions and not be a normal mix. I TWICE was in unions and didn't know: once as a 411 operator and another time, before that, in retail sales at a now-defunct formerly-major chain. In each case I was NOT told I was in one until AFTER I was hired, and I was paying money to self-serving entities. My take (a limited one) is this: If I'm FIREABLE, FIRE me. I don't need some org covering my ass when I should be fired. I don't need the costs of goods going thru the fucking roof to the point that I can't afford to buy what I make or sale for the company. I like speaking for MYSELF; I don't need some org talking for me (I don't even let the current occupant of the oval office speak for me; I do my OWN speaking!) and telling me not to cross a line, and so on.
Now, I realize the goods I purchase probably all went thru union hands, from raw goods to WIP to FG, to shipped product and shelved, and even rung at the cash register. But, that doesn't mean I need to join one. Seems like IT is of the last bastions not skimmed/dipped into. Imagine if IT workers went into a union: We'd be PISSED. It's one thing going thru a temp agency, costing a would-be employere TWICE (sometimes twice) what we're getting paid. Now, if IT were unionized, WHO'D get that money, even if our checks are scraped of $100 to $300 per month: Charity? No, some org preserving itself. Hell, if I'm going to lose $300 a month from my check it's going to be in a direction of MY goddam choosing, not just because, "Well, those are the dues...."
Imagine if militaries were unionized. I remember when I joined the "Nav" and we were told that in the Navy there is NO SUCH THING AS STRIKING. Hell, in war time (hopefully a REAL war, not this half-baked shit scam were foisting on the world right now...) "going on strike" could be punishable by death. To some extent, massive strikes are a massive destructive act: downline SOMEbody's gonna eat those costs, usually the consumer. Anybody remember the cost of the Long Beach strikes a few years ago? BILL-F*KING-IONS. COG UP. COLA?
Probably said too much here... might come back to haunt my ass one day...
Yes, I would, if they got 90% into the project and just up-and-quit on me. Indeed, I would.
But, if I can assume you're saying (and I do have a FEW reservations about that guy) is that he indeed deleted THEIR information, then he's absolutely going to be part of that ashen reside he created. He should have been more surgical, more precise and deleted ONLY what what his. If he emailed to the subjet of his itinerant or still-birthed company via his now-former employer's server, then he was dumb to not have realize they could reconstruct his conversations. But, if he's that smart (enough to use the delete tool he found), then he probably used another service provider, and THAT then may become the subject of the discovery process... (hehe) IFFFF they can get him to say who forwarded the mail (assuming it's not his own ISP, which might be a starting point for the DA).
Now, if he only made a few notes to himself, and their pressure to bring in the laptop got on his nerves and he had or sought out a delete tool, he probably got REEEAAAALLLL sloppy or unlucky and deleted so much stuff that they could not HELP but notice "ashes" in the disk.
In his situation, he should have just asked for permission than expecting to act without their blessing. He could have structured the deal, asked to have that client, then promised to take on business more than say, 25 miles away and not in the core interest area of the former employer. All KINDS of deals could have been hammered out, but if they're NOT being "specious pieces of shit", then he indeed IS a dipstick and will, in retrospect (as if I might see the testimonial), get fragged, his due.
Anyway, this IS indeed a mess. Both sides could negotiate. Contracts don't ALWAYS get enforced, especially if they saw potential to let him go out and rake in business, then turn around and buy him up.. maybe even fire him, or keep him and promote him. They got too emotional too fast; he got too greedy and deleted and acted too fast. Now, that company he targetted might walk away from BOTH of them... if the court doesn't/hasn't roped them in into the court room to ascertain their possible influencing role in this....
Yikes!
Would be funny, too, if they perse, umm, PROSEcution said, "At that point the computer became a nodeless nodal node... a rogue node under your control..."
Ahhh, this for somereason reminds me of Evan Brown at www.unixguru.com
Hold a sec... Did he log on via a remote, or via the keyboard? There's a slight nuanced difference. So many others pointed out that he could have had credit card numbers, porn, or something damning but not business mission-essential. Reasonable companies grant some leeway and only sue if there's a REASON.
If he's trying to illegally partner with that company, the courts can stop him. But ONLY if the relationship is damaging to the former employer. If that employer can't offer services or products that the employee sees a need for and his employer STILL won't offer to that company whose needs seem to have enticed this guy to quit and go into business for himself, then shame on his former employers. And on the judges.
They ought to be CONGRATULATING him. "Welcome BOB! Welcome to CORPORATE AMER'KA. Pull your sell up by your bootstraps! Meet us at Santini's at 6PM for a few martinis on the rocks... Let's make a symbiotic relationship here, if you think you don't mind..."
But, someone got hostile, pissed in the vinegar, or snapped the vines and that was that.
All too many people get hostile instead of trying to amicably, or tenuously work from a DISTANCE that is not imposed by some mean-assed, all-exclusive-and-exclusionary-screw-you type of contract. That's half the problem WITH this country: "grabbing hands, grab all they can, everything counts in large amounts" (to borrow words from a music group I used to listen to...)
Not attacking U personally with this....
/begin rant here
/end rant here
Well, u know what? My heart pumps PISS for that company. If they were smart, they'd have thought, "Hey, HE'S still in possession of OUR laptop. Let's feign a meeting, get him to bring it in for an iPod or some device issuance, and then SNATCH the laptop from him and give him is severance or owed money and escort him out the door with a copy of the no-compete/non-disclosure."
But, no, they effed up. Royally. The laptop was in his POSSESSION, which is what they must've crossed their fingers over. If it were me that were the employee, of COURSE I'd take my chances and delete my stuff IF I saw this coming. I myself was laid off, and deleted stuff-- LOTS of stuff from the company's laptop. But, I did ask, first, AND they even let me burn CD's of my stuff. We didn't quibble over he niceties and legalities of the employment contract (the were the 2nd company to own the one I'd joined).
Legally, the guy is probably IN deep doodoo. But, if his actions aren't destroying, hampering, libeling or defaming the company, the the management is just being a bunch of asses to make an example of him. Given all the tech that exists, they could have installed keystroke monitoring software BEFORE issuing him the laptop. Then -- if they wanted--they could have admonished him that he may or may not be monitored. They screwed up. They tipped him off while their goods were in his possession. They knew they had a potentially hostile situation on hand, and either they or maybe neither side wanted to part amicably.
This also goes right to the heart of the problem with no-compete. If they company they want to woo is hostile toward them and they prefer this guy who quit for them, and if that company was never on the target list or at least wasn't wooed by the company management and if they didn't say we want this company, even tho they don't want us, so all employees, keep in mind they're ours, even if our operations get hit by the next Al Qaida attack, that company is our prospect...", then a human's got to work and got to eat. And, given the fact that technology is pervasive, and that it's not the 1930s or 1950's anymore where competing with your employer might mean working 2 streets down more than it does today, and that there are tons of companies, but only so many with matching interests, then non-competes ought to be tossed out except in extremely rare cases that are anticipated by COURTS in advance to protect the worker.
Ahh, but that's the problem. Government is run by or influenced more by corps than by workers. So, that's also why intellectual property law is what it is now-- pro tems and ex businessmen rubbing out entrepreneurial types like myself-- every damned where we turn in a hi-tech environment, we're under the gun, under hostile eyes. ANY freakin' type of database interface I make conceivably could be in the sphere of my potential or some of my past employers, and if I disclose, I'm at risk that someone in the company will tell an outside buddy with more resources than I could ever muster. If I don't disclose, I'm screwed if I patent it and they get greedy and sue for my patent under some frivolous crap loophole. I even once worked at a MORTGAGE company which had an IT department, and I was at risk of losing my employment over NDAs and disclosures because their "rate shop" software encroached upon (or they thought I was encroaching upon them with) my hobby which was in that I was trying to make two disparate numbers moving at two different angles and speeds intersect when one was avoiding and another was chasing. I wasn't even designing a freaking RATE SHOP ENGINE! Goddamn California (and, any other state for that matter) laws looking out for big business and threatening tech workers who can't escape the damned corporate world of grabbing-hands IT officers looking for money outside their company mission.
(my effing blood pressure's up too much now to tirade anymore about that problem with a past employer....)
(slash image word: "misused")
I read most of -- maybe 95% -- of the original article, but I did NOT read the court papers nor try to look for them.
So, this is on the assumption that he SELECTIVELY deleted files and didn't delete day-to-day financials, IT-installed AV software, IT-installed firewall and logger software..
But, since he used a secure delete:
-- HOW does IAC know WHAT he deleted?
-- WHY be such specious pieces of shit and sue him for something they cannot prove/trying to prove the unknowable?
If he once had a company proposal, but then had his own ideas and prototyped them, but left the company-bound original in place then the stuff he made for himself is HIS HIS HIS! Not the company's "just because he put it there".
If he put a pic of his family, they'd deleted it without a second thought. But, because it may be or they FEEL it's in their "sphere of interest", of course they'll want a copy. But, too bad. If they had a plan to expand and didn't include him, and liked his ideas but said, "See ya, we don't need ya", and he felt they we're using HIS ideas (which, if he's smart, can be reconstructed by any MBA observing the business potential, studying the companies and entities involved, and using some wit and imagination...), then if they didn't have them in their meetings minutes, they're stupid.
Now, IF he produced the stuff on COMPANY time FOR the company and it was stuff they TOLD him to make as an in-process and end-product set of information, then he shouldn't have deleted it. But, if he, for instance, installed (say, with their permission) his own licensed software and produced data for them, but say, deleted their data, then they have NO damn business expecting to keep "evidence of his Corel (or whatever) copy". He could have had Maya, Alias, ACAD, who knows. And, if they had ACAD, but he drew floorplans of an office he intends to have fitted out, THAT, TOO is none of their goddam business.
Sour grapes. Sometimes, some COMPANIES just don't get it. Same goes for those companies whic hire programmers and and then "compensate" them to intentionally embed, encrypt and then claim as "their own intellectual property" some GPL/GNU software they goddam didn't create, and then adamantly pass off and defend as their own and expect smarter employees to sign NDAs and Non-Competes over stuff the company didn't create.
I hope that guy is smart, has a smart lawyer and that he actually IS in the right. But, unless we actually see the court transcripts, get our own forensics team on the hard drive (assuming the company didn't distrub the 1s and 0s any more than the ex-employee did), then it's going to be hard for any geek/nerd on this site to say much of anything meaningful without laying out some reasonable scenarios. I guess....
Sovell? Nuse? Nah, their market share would REALLY crash thru the floor...
Quote from parent: "Unfortunately, once it's verified, it will output the whole message, leading the user to believe that the whole message was signed."
....
;o7fp 2;4j2;o8ps98f j3;r
....
Well, then a little GOOD social engineering could resolve this, right? Some prepend and append markups could help identify what was injected.
Example: (Pre-encrypted)
Begin Encrypted Body HERE:
We snatched the subject at building 232. Skyjack arrived at the field and extracted subject at 2200 hours, and headed 225 True north along evac corridor. Diverted to SSW 45 seconds later, avoiding
End Encrypted Body HERE.
=======
Now, the injected part might be:
You are discouraged from complying with the contents of this message.
fasd;
Begin Encrypted Body HERE:
We snatched the subject at building 232. Skyjack arrived at the field and extracted subject at 2200 hours, and headed 225 True north along evac corridor. Diverted to SSW 45 seconds later, avoiding
End Encrypted Body HERE.
485wiapeow8r-934-5834u
==========
OK, so is this good enough? Everyone? Anyone?
Alternatively, the message could be sent in duplicate, via another transmission method, or the first decrypt could contain the raw message, but the confirmation (if speed is not of the essence) could be in a plain text message with some of the NON-CLASSIFIED text in the same sequence. Having received it from another secure channel, the authentication could be had by comparing the sensitive with the non-sensitive "sanitized" version. Besides, how would Uncle Sam know when and what the contents of the out-of-channel authentication message be? You could be sending a red herring in the encrypted message JUST to see if they're tampering with your traffic...
Now, if you want something to REALLY worry about... consider your using Amarok to receive songs. How do you KNOW that the packets entering your machine are SAFE. So much CPU processing is going on with your KDE or Gnome GUI and any music scopes and rotating desktops that you really can't KNOW WHAT the hell is in your machine even if you real-time scan or spot-check. Unless you've got a quantum computer or a brain-machine interface with your brain able to process terabytes to the terabyte power, (and enough hours in the day) how will you KNOW your machine isn't back-door attacked by NSA or someone smarter than you. Even if you run Tripwire and other stuff, do you REALY check ALL those checksums. Don't know bout U, but I change enough files all day to just not CARE anymore. Well, except to hope no one's PLANTING stuff or defacing my files.
Imagine this:
...
Papers: Wallstreet disappointed in ms share erosion due to Google products being releases one after another...
ms: (Chortling) We'll reverse our losses! We'll BUY GOOGLE!
Papers: In a stunning REversal, ms share price rises..
(2 days later)
Papers: For the first time, a company refusing to be bought out publicly stated before journalists: FUCK YOU microsoft!
(1 hour later)
Papers: In a stunning TRAversal, Wallstreet HAMMERS the shit out of ms shares...
In other news... Dove was found to contain not one-quarter moisturizing cream, but one QUART compressed moisturizing cream...
McCoy: Dear Lord.... What if this thing were used where life already EXISTS?
Spock: It would preclude such life in favor of its new MATRIX?
McCoy: (incredulous) It's "new MATRIX"?
heheheh...
Me: (dials feverishly)
Operator: (whiny) Ahh-per-a-tuhr....
Hello, Operator???? Git me da FUCK outta here!!! NOW!!!!
BTW, I juxtaposing the lab gas with nuke heat:
m l
. html
Nuclear Weapon Thermal Effects:
Special Weapons Primer; Weapons of Mass Destruction:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/thermal.htm
-----------
Temperature of a Nuclear Explosion:
The Physics Factbook
Edited by Glenn Elert -- Written by his students
An educational, Fair Use website
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/SimonFung.sht
----------
Nuclear Weapons Effects--An Overview
by Wm. Robert Johnston
last updated 8 March 2005
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/effectsum
Bon-therma-tit...
spell RELIEF? R-O-L-A-I-D-S?
I am sure Digel, tums and Rolaids won't do shit for this kind of gas.
Insta-Bake/EZ-Bake Oven of the Masses?
Oh, given the proximity of the of the topics in the main page... (terror financing) this would be the ULTIMATE terror weapon if it could be weaponized... you only need to be a government with the apparati (?, hehee -ti, or -tus?) and the WILLINGness to use it... Might instigate a new dictionary addition:
TERRORIZATION (n, v): (aka terror-forming) the result of the conversion process of or the action of conversion of otherwise innocuous substances and devices into weapons of mass destruction with a dose of terrorizing for the suppression of or obliteration of peoples and governments despised by the users of said weapon. (DAMN! A lot of "Ofs"...)
Who needs FAEs, nukes, knives and bunker busters when you've got PLASMA. Yeh, I guess the users could be called "The Plasmatics", or "Plasma Cabal" if they order the use of this on another nation.
But, imagine a chain of this stuff slitherin' around in sewers and canals...
OTOH, dropping a few buckets of these down the gullets of Pinatubo and St. Helens will be like Pepto-Bismol for volcanos.
KHAAAAn-KHAAAAN--KHAAAAAN- dahar, anyone....
AHh, my man, but to quote it near-properly... u gotta yell it out like:
"HLILLIUN!!! Da BITCH is fallin' outta TREES AGAIN!!!" hehehehe
Ohh.. man... so "brutiful", Damn! If I hadn't polished off the last my Thrifty's brand stuff last night, I could have taunted you with, "I-I-I got summm I-I-ce CREE-EEM. I got su-uh-uhm IYYCE-CREAM. YOO don't HA'E NONE. Cuz YOO CAN'T AFFOD-T. 'Cuz YOH- dad's an alcoHOLic; and yo' famly's ohnn WELfare... Ice-cream Ice-cream Ice-Cream... HA!!!!
heheheh....
Well.. Guess I gotta say... "Thrift's Thrift's THRIFTY'S.. HA!!" n git me sum of dat good stuff.. Mocah Almond Fudge and Pistacio hand-packed pints... And I BETTER not drop it on da ground, heheh
(Remember the dog shit so old it didn't stink anymore? It was so old it was part of the household FURNITURE!) heheh
trees AND say "Gooney GOOGOO!"?
So, what about all those geeks who feel "I feel FUCKY"? Will they still be able to access pr0n?