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Comment: Call IT directly (Score 1) 247

A few years ago I enabled web access to one of my bank accounts just to check the balance. Less than a day later I started receiving phishing attacks aimed at that specific bank. It quickly became 6 or more per day. I dutifully forwarded them to the eddress the bank's website listed for reporting them, but after 3 weeks I was getting pretty annoyed. So I started including a paragraph suggesting that the bank not bother trying to trace the phishers and instead focus on finding who at the bank was selling the info. Within 2 days the phishing attacks stopped. Apparently the abuse email account was being watched by the insider. With this in mind, I suggest that you directly contact more than one person with authority in their IT department, by phone.

Comment: Kazakhstan should apply for US statehood (Score 1) 131

by spaceman375 (#42250337) Attached to: Kazakhstan Wants Russia To Hand Over Their Baikonur Space City
The US would LOVE to own that spaceport; they'd jump at the chance with promisses of lots of money. Kazakhstan would immediately be eligible for all sorts of federal grants, loans, and development incentives. The people of Kazakhstan would see a big influx of businesses and jobs, along with social programs and charities, tripping over eachother in the rush to exploit, uh, provide for the new markets. I think it would be a huge win all around. Except perhaps for Russia.

Then there really would be "Americans" who could say "I can see Russia from my front porch!"

Comment: The other side of the coin (Score 0) 127

by spaceman375 (#40713629) Attached to: Facebook and Wal-Mart Join Forces
I have been awaiting this for years for my (and everyone's) personal convenience. Yes, we will come up with all sorts of laws and violations, privileges and abuses, and some people will inevitably be wronged. Cars and trucks emit carcinogens but no one is championing going back to horses. Every single comment I've read has been all about the bugaboo paranoia, yet the vast majority of people will benefit from this.

I am specifically talking about replacing credit cards and cash. Combine location tracking and high quality facial recognition, put it in a "cash register," and I won't need to carry a wallet. No more PINs, no more swipe or bump of a card, no signature needed (I sign them with a backwards squiggle anyway.) I can't lose my face, and you can't steal it from me. No need to pass germs between checkout clerks and customers. Robbery of many kinds would drop, since the stores will have less cash on hand. But mostly I just want to not have to carry a wallet or type in a PIN in places where many others can watch.

Seriously, like everything else this has both good and bad aspects to it, but the good outweighs the bad by magnitudes here. Stop whining and start proposing appropriate laws and enforcements: It's easier to ride this horse in the direction its going 'cause it ain't gonna stop.

Comment: Got him back good (Score 3, Funny) 320

by spaceman375 (#40355431) Attached to: Hacked Companies Fight Back With Controversial Steps
One morning our net was SLOW. Turned out most of our 200+ computers were participating in a DOS attack on a computer in Texas. We traced back where the infection started, checked the logs on that computer, and found the source.

Then we called his mother.

She unplugged his PC and told us she'd deal with him when he got home from school.

Comment: Re:I was a "hacker" scout in 1994 (Score 1) 186

by spaceman375 (#39227591) Attached to: Is It Time For Hacker Scouts?
I did explorers back in '74. I sat at Bell Labs in Holmdel, nj and played Hunt The Wumpus on computers 50 miles away. Got to write any programs I wanted, any language I cared to tackle, on state of the art mainframes, with willing tutors for whatever direction I chose. Didn't realize the spectacular opportunity I was missing 'till much later. I'd give Explorers two thumbs up, except that I think they belong up the bigoted Boy Scouts of America's ass.

Comment: knee jerk (Score 2) 258

by spaceman375 (#38590368) Attached to: Avoiding Facial Recognition of the Future
I've been looking forward to decent facial recognition for decades. Especially in "cash registers." No more PINs, signatures, passwords to make up and then remember, no card swiping, bumping, etc. Heck; no cards at all in my wallet for loss or picking. Despite following "The Dead" back in the day, no, you can't steal my face. Just smile at the camera and go. Want to log in? My desktop should just follow me around wherever the nearest screen is. No more carrying a keychain (or barcode chain). My car should just recognise me and not be willing to start for anyone else without checking with me first. Same thing with the locks on my house. Tech like this is a good thing. How it gets used should be controlled and applied ethically, not just shot down with a luddite approach in the name of privacy. Go back to your shrill call to "Think of the children."

Comment: I want CarrierIQ on my phone (Score 1) 322

by spaceman375 (#38214228) Attached to: Android Dev Demonstrates CarrierIQ Phone Logging Software On Video
I mean, I REALLY want it. I like it so much that I want my phone to continuously send a stream of keystrokes, URLs, and any other data that fits into their protocol directly to their servers, even if I have to stuff it directly from a random number generator. Hell, can I get 3 or 4 streams going at once? How about ten or more from my PC, tablet, and laptop too? My GPS numbers can demonstrate faster than light travel around the planet! Perhaps a direct feed rebroadcast from live news sites might help them fill their databases. They want data - let's flood them with it until their data is so full of garbage that no one will buy it.

Comment: Re:VS (Score 1) 433

by spaceman375 (#38101106) Attached to: Drug-Resistant Superbugs Sweeping Across Europe
Apparently, you haven't been there. In the US people who get antibiotics take them for the full time span prescribed. They kill ALL the target bugs. In Europe, the attitude is to take them for just a few days until you feel better, leaving the strongest of the bugs around to breed a more resistant population.

It has been said that Public Relations is the art of winning friends and getting people under the influence. -- Jeremy Tunstall

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