So... did they leave it at that? Have you been able to find another job since then? Or did every interviewer for the next five years pass the link around to all of their colleagues in HR departments across the nation? Did the people who cracked your machine decide that they had their fun and that was enough or did they make use of their newfound toy to continue to reinstall new trojans on your system even to this day?
Except I was being serious. Within their respective industries--international chemical weapons and the global internet--the reason why Anonymous Coward isn't caught is the same as the reason why nobody caught the people who sold mustard gas to Saddam Hussein. See what a mess the mustard gas turned into? See what a mess anonymous cowards make?
As a matter of psychology, are you familiar with the known effects of being subjected to deliberate, daily, hourly, per post, harassment?
As a matter of reality: are you seriously claiming that no group of malicious ACs has ever taken things "over the line"?
As a matter of history: do I need to specifically find instances where rumors and gossip which began on the internet have had real world effects for teachers, students, and even food distributor CEOs?
As a matter of entertainment: do you suppose that, in the movie 'Hackers', there was no real world basis for the scenario of ruining the credit, telephone, and life of the agent (who, in the movie, was a knucklehead... but still)?
I'm just asking people to be a little bit more honest than,"Well, it never happened to me, so that means it doesn't happen or was obviously something the victim should've just ignored."
There's a big difference between being trolled "once in a while" and being trolled at least 2-3 times per post, per message, per IM, per e-mail. Consider yourself lucky if you haven't had the exquisite... privelege... of experiencing that kind of trolling. Don't pretend that it's something that people can just brush aside, though. Some people listen to Mozart and heavy metal, but not everyone wants to plant their head next to a speaker at a major rock concert. Just because you've only had to listen to Mozart doesn't mean that everyone should be overjoyed at having a jackhammer attached to their ear.
And no, it's not part of freedom. Freedom does not advocate being malicious.
I've always been the one to introduce him to the internet's memes and trends (from All Your Base to the O RLY owl) How are you so sure that he didn't come across them long before you did--and simply didn't feel they were worth noting?
Because, just like/b/, they're not. Not everyone _needs_ to be exposed to that kind of crap.
That's all very well and good as long as they've never been able to reach you outside of message boards. While you are correct to be carefree in your position it's disingenuous to pretend that they couldn't get to you the same way they have gotten to others. If anything you should be thankful that the others were there lest you may have become a target of primary interest.
Is that like saying the idiot with anger management issues and a hugely inflated sense of self-importance who posted anonymously isn't just as much at fault for being the knucklehead who instigated the situation?
Well that and the simple fact that maintaining a significant amount of signal in ignorance is an open invitation for it to be used against you. I wish that everyone could have the unique experience of being mobbed by a group of people posting routinely as Anonymous Coward, such as the thread leading to this post where, seemingly, the same AC has been able to post at fairly regular 10 minute intervals all day long. Try doing that with a legitimate user account.
Maybe Slashdot should allow Anonymous Cowards to post but only after logging in with an actual account.
That thread that I mention is either one AC who's obvious abusing the system or a group of ACs who are obviously abusing the user.
*cue AC tirades of "conspiracy" "paranoia" and "It's all your own fault!"*
there isn't anything to stop Anonymous from calling up someone's work and getting them fired, harassing their victim's family, putting up fake pages or message posts under someone's name to fuck up their reputation (and thanks to google and the practice of searching someone's name when they submit a resume that is becomming much more of a factor).
Maybe, back in the days before usenet, what you did on the inter net stayed on the internet; but at this point too much spills over into real life and it's a danger.
When innocent people can have their lives ruined by an anonymous mob it's no different because it's people hiding behind a computer and causing trouble on the internet than it would be if it were people wearing sheets and burning crosses. Well said. Well said.
Isn't this what HomelessInLaJolla has been trying to say for almost a year? Isn't this what SilverspurG tried alerting people to in the year before that? Isn't that exactly what maximilln tried bringing to notice in the year before that?
I'm just sayin'... It's not as if I have any personal experience being on the crap end of the stick.
*cue the AC posts screaming "conspiracy" "paranoia" and "It's all your own fault!"*
but the privacy advocates have treated all 'privacy violations' with the same shrill cries of Doooooooooooom! for so long, ol' Joe has been desensitized. In the 1600s, how did slavers catch slaves in Africa? They looked for the people who weren't paying attention to their surroundings and weren't being mindful of being watched and tracked.
It's not quite so physically extreme anymore. Everything has moved into the numbers game of categorizing and controlling the flow of financial resources through segments of the population based on percentages--not even about tracking individuals (though it is just as possible through data set intersections).
Just because you don't understand it, or just because you don't know the math necessary to model such things, doesn't mean it isn't happening. All of world history demonstrates you to be the ignorant one.
He feels (rightly) that it doesn't really matter if he leaves a paper trail Most base animals figured out, thousands of years ago, that leaving a trail is a careful balance between marking territory and attracting predators.
There are wealthy and powerful predators in both government and private industry.
But you can keep your head in the sand. The herd of idiots won't notice when the wolves pick you.
Just because you don't know, can't even imagine, don't have the intellect required to figure out, how predators are exploiting you doesn't mean it isn't happening. Maybe you think that society is all love and roses and nobody would ever exploit their fellow man. Don't let ten thousand years of history or reality enlighten you.
Okay twat-noggin... Look, there's this thing called "some assembly required", and there's also a matter of $200. When I use Linux, I expect to tweak around with it because it didn't cost $200 and there's an implied "some assembly required". When I use Windows I plunked down $200 for it and it should Just Work. I shouldn't have to dick around with Run As, or worry about drive-by installs that are my fault because I forgot some obscure security setting someplace. That's why I paid $200 for it.
And no, I can't list any of the situations off the top of my head because I don't keep track of them on a notepad. Are you paying me to be a beta tester? Maybe MS should start paying US, the users, to use their POS OS because yes, we are being used as free beta testers and your mentality proves it. There's a reason why many small companies default to giving the users superuser/admin privs... and it's because they're sick and tired of the help desk getting 100 calls/day about "how come I can't do this or that or the other" or "I tried Run As but it still didn't work". Don't try to bullshit me when the clear evidence is in corporate offices across the nation.
I don't know what it is in you that makes you have this seething desire to tear into anything I post but it's getting old... and yes, it may be ad hominem, but you're really coming off as a tweedle dick.
Don't blame me if all you ever do with your system is play games and browse the web. There's a reason why many of us throw up our hands and give our primary Windows account superuser and Admin privs... and it's because there are too many niches and corners which Run As doesn't cover completely. Go ahead, tell me you've never run into any of them and you'll demonstrate one of two things: either you're a Windows weenie who's spent time/money in MS training and knows how to set everything up perfectly or you're a newb who never needs Admin privs anyway. If you're a Windows weenie, well then, more power to you. It'd be nice if there were an introductory level set of HOWTOs for Windows that'd be anywhere near as comprehensive as tldp.org. If Windows were a command-line centric OS then, yes, we'd all have Admin command prompts open but... hey dumbass... Windows is a GUI OS.
If they can't get to it from the case connector they'll open the box and find a different set of wires on the circuit board to tap into. Yes, it'll take more research into the chips on the board but eventually a weak point will be found.
It's been going on for centuries. Keep arguing. Unless you're willing to bet that HDCP will be the be all and end all of encryption methods and no other better method will ever be needed then you'd best just pack up and shut up now. If you are willing to bet on it then I'll be more than happy to take you up on your offer of free money.
> The problem is everyone runs Windows as an Administrator, not a user.
Only because people always need admin priveleges at the most inopportune times. Sure, you only need to be Admin for 2 seconds, but if you're doing anything technical with the system, you need them every 5-10 minutes. In these situations Run As is at best, cumbersome, and in many cases outright incapable.
If Windows wanted to be truly innovative there would be a way to supply an Admin password, temporarily upgrade privs to Admin, and then have a button available to immediately downgrade.
I'd like the IP on that idea since it'll be central to making a GUI OS both secure and functional.
I totally empathize and agree with your point of view but, unless you have a plan to turn the entire American legal and political system on its head, you can't do anything to stop it. There hasn't been a single bill passed in the last 30 years which hasn't been resulted in further transfer of power from individuals to corporate interests while masking it behind some clever PR front.
Someone will connect an oscilloscope to the wire(s) that connect(s) the devices and reverse engineer the communications signal. They will then construct a custom breadboard able to talk to any HDCP device while being able to impersonate a device with a programmable HDCP vector/rule. With a link (ethernet or serial) to any modern day PC they'll just brute force it.
Great. You've just created a whole new sector to the political lobbying industry. The "my art is different from your art and so requires a whole different set of laws" sector.
You've got politicians drooling at the chops for all the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money they can waste debating and legislating and litigating over this.
The article is purposely vague because it's a fluff piece. Maybe the PR department for the University of East Anglia had some credits to burn with the BBC. The technology amounts to little more than,"We found a new way to grind gold to a finer particle size and now we can use it to... uh... do some stuff which... can... uh... be used for... um... detecting TERRORISTS!" Throw in the sappy bit about water testing with the gratuitous shot of the poverty stricken child crouching in a dirty alleyway and everything's all set.
Take for example this phrase,"the target substance, be it a poison such as ricin or a bug like E.coli, binds to the sugar." That must be some sort of that funny magical sugar that comes from the end of the rainbow if it can bind both ricin (a protein of about 520 amino acid residues) and E.coli (an entire bacteria) with any selectivity over, say, phlegm or an innocent algae.
The article is a cheap promotion for Professor David Russel and a PR feelgood article for those who don't know much about biochemistry.
You're not kidding. Whenever I'm in a public restroom and need to use the bowl I always make sure to wipe the seat AND the rim down with toilet paper before assuming the position. Then I still sit as far back on the seat as possible. There's just a really bad feeling when you feel that cold porcelain and think,"20 other schlongtips touched this spot in the last day alone."
Have you done the followup on any of those donation amounts or are you just a PR monkey?
Most of the money from the BMG Foundation found its home in the pockets of lobbyists, lawyers, administrators, middlemen, banquet dinners, and funding Harvard interns to draft reports on how to address the problems. I bet Melinda cruises around in a big fat Hummer which was purchased as an asset of the non-profit.
There is no better money-laundering scheme than a charitable organization with 90% overhead... and you peddle it out like they're the reincarnation of Mother Theresa.
Slashdot Mirror
You have presented no evidence to support your claims.
Please tell me what else you think you know of my posting history.
What's more hilarious is that you think it's never happened.
So... did they leave it at that? Have you been able to find another job since then? Or did every interviewer for the next five years pass the link around to all of their colleagues in HR departments across the nation? Did the people who cracked your machine decide that they had their fun and that was enough or did they make use of their newfound toy to continue to reinstall new trojans on your system even to this day?
Just how bad was it?
Except I was being serious. Within their respective industries--international chemical weapons and the global internet--the reason why Anonymous Coward isn't caught is the same as the reason why nobody caught the people who sold mustard gas to Saddam Hussein. See what a mess the mustard gas turned into? See what a mess anonymous cowards make?
As a matter of anecdote, have you read this post?
As a matter of psychology, are you familiar with the known effects of being subjected to deliberate, daily, hourly, per post, harassment?
As a matter of reality: are you seriously claiming that no group of malicious ACs has ever taken things "over the line"?
As a matter of history: do I need to specifically find instances where rumors and gossip which began on the internet have had real world effects for teachers, students, and even food distributor CEOs?
As a matter of entertainment: do you suppose that, in the movie 'Hackers', there was no real world basis for the scenario of ruining the credit, telephone, and life of the agent (who, in the movie, was a knucklehead... but still)?
I'm just asking people to be a little bit more honest than,"Well, it never happened to me, so that means it doesn't happen or was obviously something the victim should've just ignored."
There's a big difference between being trolled "once in a while" and being trolled at least 2-3 times per post, per message, per IM, per e-mail. Consider yourself lucky if you haven't had the exquisite... privelege... of experiencing that kind of trolling. Don't pretend that it's something that people can just brush aside, though. Some people listen to Mozart and heavy metal, but not everyone wants to plant their head next to a speaker at a major rock concert. Just because you've only had to listen to Mozart doesn't mean that everyone should be overjoyed at having a jackhammer attached to their ear.
And no, it's not part of freedom. Freedom does not advocate being malicious.
Because, just like
That's all very well and good as long as they've never been able to reach you outside of message boards. While you are correct to be carefree in your position it's disingenuous to pretend that they couldn't get to you the same way they have gotten to others. If anything you should be thankful that the others were there lest you may have become a target of primary interest.
Is that like saying the idiot with anger management issues and a hugely inflated sense of self-importance who posted anonymously isn't just as much at fault for being the knucklehead who instigated the situation?
Well that and the simple fact that maintaining a significant amount of signal in ignorance is an open invitation for it to be used against you. I wish that everyone could have the unique experience of being mobbed by a group of people posting routinely as Anonymous Coward, such as the thread leading to this post where, seemingly, the same AC has been able to post at fairly regular 10 minute intervals all day long. Try doing that with a legitimate user account.
Maybe Slashdot should allow Anonymous Cowards to post but only after logging in with an actual account.
That thread that I mention is either one AC who's obvious abusing the system or a group of ACs who are obviously abusing the user.
*cue AC tirades of "conspiracy" "paranoia" and "It's all your own fault!"*
For the same reason they don't just catch the guys who sold the mustard gas to Saddam Hussein.
Maybe, back in the days before usenet, what you did on the inter net stayed on the internet; but at this point too much spills over into real life and it's a danger.
When innocent people can have their lives ruined by an anonymous mob it's no different because it's people hiding behind a computer and causing trouble on the internet than it would be if it were people wearing sheets and burning crosses. Well said. Well said.
Isn't this what HomelessInLaJolla has been trying to say for almost a year? Isn't this what SilverspurG tried alerting people to in the year before that? Isn't that exactly what maximilln tried bringing to notice in the year before that?
I'm just sayin'... It's not as if I have any personal experience being on the crap end of the stick.
*cue the AC posts screaming "conspiracy" "paranoia" and "It's all your own fault!"*
It's not quite so physically extreme anymore. Everything has moved into the numbers game of categorizing and controlling the flow of financial resources through segments of the population based on percentages--not even about tracking individuals (though it is just as possible through data set intersections).
Just because you don't understand it, or just because you don't know the math necessary to model such things, doesn't mean it isn't happening. All of world history demonstrates you to be the ignorant one.
There are wealthy and powerful predators in both government and private industry.
But you can keep your head in the sand. The herd of idiots won't notice when the wolves pick you.
Just because you don't know, can't even imagine, don't have the intellect required to figure out, how predators are exploiting you doesn't mean it isn't happening. Maybe you think that society is all love and roses and nobody would ever exploit their fellow man. Don't let ten thousand years of history or reality enlighten you.
More government subsidy for the established telecoms and ISPs who are threatened by the success of services like Vonage.
Okay twat-noggin... Look, there's this thing called "some assembly required", and there's also a matter of $200. When I use Linux, I expect to tweak around with it because it didn't cost $200 and there's an implied "some assembly required". When I use Windows I plunked down $200 for it and it should Just Work. I shouldn't have to dick around with Run As, or worry about drive-by installs that are my fault because I forgot some obscure security setting someplace. That's why I paid $200 for it.
And no, I can't list any of the situations off the top of my head because I don't keep track of them on a notepad. Are you paying me to be a beta tester? Maybe MS should start paying US, the users, to use their POS OS because yes, we are being used as free beta testers and your mentality proves it. There's a reason why many small companies default to giving the users superuser/admin privs... and it's because they're sick and tired of the help desk getting 100 calls/day about "how come I can't do this or that or the other" or "I tried Run As but it still didn't work". Don't try to bullshit me when the clear evidence is in corporate offices across the nation.
I don't know what it is in you that makes you have this seething desire to tear into anything I post but it's getting old... and yes, it may be ad hominem, but you're really coming off as a tweedle dick.
Are you trolls still following me?
Don't blame me if all you ever do with your system is play games and browse the web. There's a reason why many of us throw up our hands and give our primary Windows account superuser and Admin privs... and it's because there are too many niches and corners which Run As doesn't cover completely. Go ahead, tell me you've never run into any of them and you'll demonstrate one of two things: either you're a Windows weenie who's spent time/money in MS training and knows how to set everything up perfectly or you're a newb who never needs Admin privs anyway. If you're a Windows weenie, well then, more power to you. It'd be nice if there were an introductory level set of HOWTOs for Windows that'd be anywhere near as comprehensive as tldp.org. If Windows were a command-line centric OS then, yes, we'd all have Admin command prompts open but... hey dumbass... Windows is a GUI OS.
If they can't get to it from the case connector they'll open the box and find a different set of wires on the circuit board to tap into. Yes, it'll take more research into the chips on the board but eventually a weak point will be found.
It's been going on for centuries. Keep arguing. Unless you're willing to bet that HDCP will be the be all and end all of encryption methods and no other better method will ever be needed then you'd best just pack up and shut up now. If you are willing to bet on it then I'll be more than happy to take you up on your offer of free money.
> The problem is everyone runs Windows as an Administrator, not a user.
Only because people always need admin priveleges at the most inopportune times. Sure, you only need to be Admin for 2 seconds, but if you're doing anything technical with the system, you need them every 5-10 minutes. In these situations Run As is at best, cumbersome, and in many cases outright incapable.
If Windows wanted to be truly innovative there would be a way to supply an Admin password, temporarily upgrade privs to Admin, and then have a button available to immediately downgrade.
I'd like the IP on that idea since it'll be central to making a GUI OS both secure and functional.
I totally empathize and agree with your point of view but, unless you have a plan to turn the entire American legal and political system on its head, you can't do anything to stop it. There hasn't been a single bill passed in the last 30 years which hasn't been resulted in further transfer of power from individuals to corporate interests while masking it behind some clever PR front.
Someone will connect an oscilloscope to the wire(s) that connect(s) the devices and reverse engineer the communications signal. They will then construct a custom breadboard able to talk to any HDCP device while being able to impersonate a device with a programmable HDCP vector/rule. With a link (ethernet or serial) to any modern day PC they'll just brute force it.
It won't be difficult.
Great. You've just created a whole new sector to the political lobbying industry. The "my art is different from your art and so requires a whole different set of laws" sector.
You've got politicians drooling at the chops for all the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money they can waste debating and legislating and litigating over this.
The article is purposely vague because it's a fluff piece. Maybe the PR department for the University of East Anglia had some credits to burn with the BBC. The technology amounts to little more than,"We found a new way to grind gold to a finer particle size and now we can use it to... uh... do some stuff which... can... uh... be used for... um... detecting TERRORISTS!" Throw in the sappy bit about water testing with the gratuitous shot of the poverty stricken child crouching in a dirty alleyway and everything's all set.
Take for example this phrase,"the target substance, be it a poison such as ricin or a bug like E.coli, binds to the sugar." That must be some sort of that funny magical sugar that comes from the end of the rainbow if it can bind both ricin (a protein of about 520 amino acid residues) and E.coli (an entire bacteria) with any selectivity over, say, phlegm or an innocent algae.
The article is a cheap promotion for Professor David Russel and a PR feelgood article for those who don't know much about biochemistry.
You're not kidding. Whenever I'm in a public restroom and need to use the bowl I always make sure to wipe the seat AND the rim down with toilet paper before assuming the position. Then I still sit as far back on the seat as possible. There's just a really bad feeling when you feel that cold porcelain and think,"20 other schlongtips touched this spot in the last day alone."
*shudder*
Have you done the followup on any of those donation amounts or are you just a PR monkey?
Most of the money from the BMG Foundation found its home in the pockets of lobbyists, lawyers, administrators, middlemen, banquet dinners, and funding Harvard interns to draft reports on how to address the problems. I bet Melinda cruises around in a big fat Hummer which was purchased as an asset of the non-profit.
There is no better money-laundering scheme than a charitable organization with 90% overhead... and you peddle it out like they're the reincarnation of Mother Theresa.
They say a sucker is born every minute...