It would take a pretty damned die-hard fanboy to be defending them at this point. About the best anyone can say is "Well, at least we got some free games out of it." Hell, everyone should get a free copy of L.A. Noire at this point, instead of just some old games. I think we're beyond the "Sorry about that, here's a free coupon" stage of fuckup.
I've never been a particularly big fan of Sony, mind you. But even I am shocked by the level of security incompetence they've shown over this whole thing. This is a major corporation, for fuck's sake! Do they even *have* a full-time security staff in there online division? Their press releases make it sound like they only stumbled on the whole PSN hack by accident and had to run out and contract for a bunch of security people. Surely to god they had SOMEONE monitoring security, right?
As one of the effected users, I'm just glad I never gave them my credit card number (fortunately, I never bought anything on PSN). Now, I wouldn't give them a credit card number on a *dare*. Hell, I won't even give them my real *name* ever again. No online system is secure, but theirs looks like a complete joke.
Meanwhile, you have the CEO of the company dismissing this whole thing as a "hiccup," which pretty aptly demonstrates just how seriously Sony apparently takes its security. No way I want my CC number or private info involved in their next "hiccup."
Then we realized that we had instead created worms that could blow up a goddamned spaceship. On an unrelated note, you will be testing our new "Super Hand Grenade" today. They're pretty slimy to hold, so be careful not to drop them...and if you do drop one, I'd like to remind you again that this job does not include life insurance benefits. If you don't like it, you can always go back to your cardboard house and not get your $60.
Now you got your fancy computers, and your cellphones, and your automobiles. In MY day, if you wanted to socialize, you had to ride your mule to a barn dance. And you had to walk in smelling like a mule and actually *talk* with a bunch of illiterates who also smelled like mules. AND WE WE BETTER FOR IT!
I'll tell you damned kids the same thing my grandpa once told me: "Now you got your fancy barn dances, and your mules..."
You know, I bet if Martin Luther King had went on a talk show back in the 60's and alleged that the FBI was spying on him, attempting to infiltrate and discredit the SCLC, and sending letters to his wife alleging affairs--everyone else on that talk show would have laughed and called him a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
It's a pretty loose definition of "habitable" to include only "You probably won't burst immediately into flame or turn into an instant icecube upon stepping off the ship." Methinks it might also be good to include little things like "oxygen," "survivable air pressure," "water," "soil that can support some form of planet life," "enough atmosphere to protect against cosmic radiation," etc.
Sounds like the reasoning of all those patriots who signed up with the military after 9-11 to stop Osama and Al-Quaida, only to find themselves fighting and dieing for Bush/Cheney oil development interests in Iraq.
The French Socialist Party gets its best shot in 22 years of winning the Presidency and overthrowing a strongly pro-American regime. But a year before the election, their leading candidate, a guy with no criminal record in his 62 years who is leading by double digits in all the polls, suddenly decides to rape a maid in New York. That's quite a convenient coincidence for the United States and their friend Nicolas Sarkozy, no? That's right up their in convenience with Julian Assange deciding to become a serial rapist just a few weeks after leaking troves of secret U.S. State Department and Pentagon documents.
Isn't it nice when all your enemies decide to become rapists after they cross you?
Actually, all it takes is a big bribe (perhaps coupled with a threat) and charges that only need to hold up well enough to last through the election. The end goal isn't a conviction, it's discrediting. He-said/she-said is more than enough for that.
Ah, to be young and naive again. Those were great days, when the world was fresh and I still believed that politicians weren't just a bunch of self-interested sociopaths who who climb over their own mothers' dead bodies to win reelection and pad their own pockets. Back in those days I used to believe stuff that people told me, even when their actions completely contradicted their words. Great days.
God, I used to hate having to show my work in math classes. While I get why teachers liked this (it showed you understood the process and weren't just cheating), it drove me crazy because it discouraged creative thinking. I was always coming up with shortcuts and ways to arrive more efficiently at an answer. But I would loose points if I didn't do it the "correct" way. This kind of conformity is why I lost interest in conventional mathematics and went into programming instead. In programming, I actually get rewarded for coming up with shortcuts and ways to make my solutions more efficient (most of the time anyway).
Pardon me as I break my tin-foil hat out here. But there are a lot of government agencies and companies who have a vested interest in seeing Anon fall to pieces. The timing on this is almost as convenient as Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Julian Assange being arrested for sexual assault (the former right after he pulled decisively ahead of pro-American Nicolas Sarkozy in the polls and the later just weeks after he released a series of secret documents that embarrassed the U.S.). But then, I've always said that pedophilia and sexual assault charges are the quickest way to discredit someone publicly--way better than anything as crude as assassination.
Don't get me wrong, here. I'm not the kind of guy who thinks the moon landings were faked or that the U.S. planned 9-11 or any of that horseshit. But sometimes the timing on certain events just strikes me as a little too convenient for mere coincidence. And as was done with Wikileaks, the first step in a descrediting campaign is to encourage dissension from within and to get some internal plants/buy-offs to publicly bad-mouth the leadership (Daniel Domscheit-Berg, I'm looking in your direction, little plant). Just don't be suprised to see some Anon leaders suddenly facing rape/pedophilia/sexual assault charges in the near future. You'll know for sure if beautiful women suddenly start throwing themselves at 4channers in public.
A few Congressmen will make get a lot of press for this--defending our rights, standing up against the TSA for the common man, etc. Then at the end of the day, they'll back down and nothing will ever come of it. It's just to get themselves some positive press. They have no intention of really accomplishing anything.
I wish they would include a "spectator" mode in more online games. I'm not very twitch quick, but I do enjoy *watching* a lot of FPS multiplayer (where you can see the really quick and clever guys pull off some amazing stuff). I wish there were more games with a mode that let me walk around as a "ghost" in the game, just watching without having to worry about getting killed and tea-bagged over and over again by 14-year-olds.
Red Dead Redemption was pretty powerful. Never really cared for the Grand Theft Auto games, as I never found the chracters sympathetic enough to really care what happened to them. But Red Dead certainly had a powerful story and was also a lot of fun to play. If Rockstar can repeat that with L.A. Noire, I'm definitely in.
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It would take a pretty damned die-hard fanboy to be defending them at this point. About the best anyone can say is "Well, at least we got some free games out of it." Hell, everyone should get a free copy of L.A. Noire at this point, instead of just some old games. I think we're beyond the "Sorry about that, here's a free coupon" stage of fuckup.
I've never been a particularly big fan of Sony, mind you. But even I am shocked by the level of security incompetence they've shown over this whole thing. This is a major corporation, for fuck's sake! Do they even *have* a full-time security staff in there online division? Their press releases make it sound like they only stumbled on the whole PSN hack by accident and had to run out and contract for a bunch of security people. Surely to god they had SOMEONE monitoring security, right?
As one of the effected users, I'm just glad I never gave them my credit card number (fortunately, I never bought anything on PSN). Now, I wouldn't give them a credit card number on a *dare*. Hell, I won't even give them my real *name* ever again. No online system is secure, but theirs looks like a complete joke.
Meanwhile, you have the CEO of the company dismissing this whole thing as a "hiccup," which pretty aptly demonstrates just how seriously Sony apparently takes its security. No way I want my CC number or private info involved in their next "hiccup."
Then we realized that we had instead created worms that could blow up a goddamned spaceship. On an unrelated note, you will be testing our new "Super Hand Grenade" today. They're pretty slimy to hold, so be careful not to drop them...and if you do drop one, I'd like to remind you again that this job does not include life insurance benefits. If you don't like it, you can always go back to your cardboard house and not get your $60.
Waterbears aren't nearly as scary as Pedobears.
Your ICQ number was a *postive* integer?!? Hah! Damned kid.
Now you got your fancy computers, and your cellphones, and your automobiles. In MY day, if you wanted to socialize, you had to ride your mule to a barn dance. And you had to walk in smelling like a mule and actually *talk* with a bunch of illiterates who also smelled like mules. AND WE WE BETTER FOR IT!
I'll tell you damned kids the same thing my grandpa once told me: "Now you got your fancy barn dances, and your mules..."
It will still be 5-10 years away.
The more likely headline would be "Bill Binney Arrested for Sexual Assault."
The Scientologists are also infamous for using this tactic against their enemies. Pretty nasty stuff.
You know, I bet if Martin Luther King had went on a talk show back in the 60's and alleged that the FBI was spying on him, attempting to infiltrate and discredit the SCLC, and sending letters to his wife alleging affairs--everyone else on that talk show would have laughed and called him a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
It's a pretty loose definition of "habitable" to include only "You probably won't burst immediately into flame or turn into an instant icecube upon stepping off the ship." Methinks it might also be good to include little things like "oxygen," "survivable air pressure," "water," "soil that can support some form of planet life," "enough atmosphere to protect against cosmic radiation," etc.
Sounds like the reasoning of all those patriots who signed up with the military after 9-11 to stop Osama and Al-Quaida, only to find themselves fighting and dieing for Bush/Cheney oil development interests in Iraq.
The French Socialist Party gets its best shot in 22 years of winning the Presidency and overthrowing a strongly pro-American regime. But a year before the election, their leading candidate, a guy with no criminal record in his 62 years who is leading by double digits in all the polls, suddenly decides to rape a maid in New York. That's quite a convenient coincidence for the United States and their friend Nicolas Sarkozy, no? That's right up their in convenience with Julian Assange deciding to become a serial rapist just a few weeks after leaking troves of secret U.S. State Department and Pentagon documents.
Isn't it nice when all your enemies decide to become rapists after they cross you?
Actually, all it takes is a big bribe (perhaps coupled with a threat) and charges that only need to hold up well enough to last through the election. The end goal isn't a conviction, it's discrediting. He-said/she-said is more than enough for that.
Ah, to be young and naive again. Those were great days, when the world was fresh and I still believed that politicians weren't just a bunch of self-interested sociopaths who who climb over their own mothers' dead bodies to win reelection and pad their own pockets. Back in those days I used to believe stuff that people told me, even when their actions completely contradicted their words. Great days.
Anon won't fall to pieces: they're like a hydra
You're probably right. But that won't stop interested parties from trying.
God, I used to hate having to show my work in math classes. While I get why teachers liked this (it showed you understood the process and weren't just cheating), it drove me crazy because it discouraged creative thinking. I was always coming up with shortcuts and ways to arrive more efficiently at an answer. But I would loose points if I didn't do it the "correct" way. This kind of conformity is why I lost interest in conventional mathematics and went into programming instead. In programming, I actually get rewarded for coming up with shortcuts and ways to make my solutions more efficient (most of the time anyway).
Pardon me as I break my tin-foil hat out here. But there are a lot of government agencies and companies who have a vested interest in seeing Anon fall to pieces. The timing on this is almost as convenient as Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Julian Assange being arrested for sexual assault (the former right after he pulled decisively ahead of pro-American Nicolas Sarkozy in the polls and the later just weeks after he released a series of secret documents that embarrassed the U.S.). But then, I've always said that pedophilia and sexual assault charges are the quickest way to discredit someone publicly--way better than anything as crude as assassination.
Don't get me wrong, here. I'm not the kind of guy who thinks the moon landings were faked or that the U.S. planned 9-11 or any of that horseshit. But sometimes the timing on certain events just strikes me as a little too convenient for mere coincidence. And as was done with Wikileaks, the first step in a descrediting campaign is to encourage dissension from within and to get some internal plants/buy-offs to publicly bad-mouth the leadership (Daniel Domscheit-Berg, I'm looking in your direction, little plant). Just don't be suprised to see some Anon leaders suddenly facing rape/pedophilia/sexual assault charges in the near future. You'll know for sure if beautiful women suddenly start throwing themselves at 4channers in public.
And, yes, that includes having Dabney Coleman running around.
Speak for yourself. I won't be happy until my workspace looks like the NORAD control center in Wargames.
The decide against it by proposing it without the votes to pass it. It dies, they get the good press, and nothing comes of it. It's just for show.
A few Congressmen will make get a lot of press for this--defending our rights, standing up against the TSA for the common man, etc. Then at the end of the day, they'll back down and nothing will ever come of it. It's just to get themselves some positive press. They have no intention of really accomplishing anything.
I wish they would include a "spectator" mode in more online games. I'm not very twitch quick, but I do enjoy *watching* a lot of FPS multiplayer (where you can see the really quick and clever guys pull off some amazing stuff). I wish there were more games with a mode that let me walk around as a "ghost" in the game, just watching without having to worry about getting killed and tea-bagged over and over again by 14-year-olds.
Wow, at that speed, it would only take 74,000 years to reach the nearest star system.
Red Dead Redemption was pretty powerful. Never really cared for the Grand Theft Auto games, as I never found the chracters sympathetic enough to really care what happened to them. But Red Dead certainly had a powerful story and was also a lot of fun to play. If Rockstar can repeat that with L.A. Noire, I'm definitely in.