Livin’ in Cowtown by Corey Spring » NBC Affiliate Gets Goo All Over Their Faces -- Uweekly.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
2:08 pm EST, Mar 7, 2007
This is what happens when you hire idiots that get their on-air graphics from a Google Search without even looking at the results.
Click the image to see the full graphic that WAGT broadcast to all its viewers. You will clearly see text in the image that says "So good, you'll suck dick."
This Korean website is selling the umbrellas from Blade Runner! How cool! I have to say, I could see people using these in Seoul. They wouldn't seem strange there. Of course, that might be just my perception, because everything there is slightly alien to me. However, the density of the city somehow makes this seem easier to imagine than in, say, Atlanta, where if you're walking around with an umbrella you're usually walking to or from a car. Perhaps these would be good in Manhatten.
I'm not certain I see categorically how removing a virus would fall into these provisions however, and I'd like to hear what I've missed.
If someone comes to you with a computer that they think might be infected with a virus and offers to pay you to look at it and possibly clean it up, you are providing services in which you are collecting information with reference to a crime. The text "crimes against the United States" does not mean circumstances were the federal government is the victim, it means circumstances where a United States law was violated. The distribution of viruses is illegal, and collecting information about that as a work for hire would be, under this law, a felony punishable with prison time.
Its worth pointing out that such activity may already be illegal under the present law, but that law has never been enforced in this context. There are clear signs, in particular, statements made by the PI board, that certain quarters are interested in seeing that law enforced in this context. With this rule change the risk goes from a minor misdemeanor charge to a felony with serious penalties. The result will be that IT professionals who do not have a background in criminal justice will have to think twice before making any offer to help someone who has been the victim of a computer crime.
That is the intent of this bill and the intent of the people who support its enforcement in this context.
Anyway, I think there's two different aspects to consider here. The first is your normal IT functions, such as virus and spyware removal, the configuring and monitoring of firewalls, etc., and the second is more advanced computer security such as responding to system compromises, "forensic" data analysis, systems fraud monitoring, etc. The former, I'd think, should be pretty much completely exempt from any sort of regulation.
This law makes no such distinction, and I don't know how you can distinguish between a spyware infection and a system compromise, nor do I know how you can distinguish between normal IT functions and "systems fraud monitoring." They are the same things. There is a professional practice of detailed computer forensics for the purpose of evidence collection for trial which is separate from normal IT security functions. You'd expect people who offer such services to understand the law of evidence collection, but there is absolutely no reason to require that those people be former police officers. In fact, in dealing with this issue for a year now I have yet to hear anyone offer an articulate explanation of why such a requirement would be desirable.
The latter, on the other hand, as I've said, has implications for evidence and the potential recovery of losses or the proscecution of a criminal investigation. Given that, I actually don't oppose the notion that such workers should be verifiably conversant in the legalistic... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]
NOTE: You have to be really, really old to understand the origin of the phrase "banned in Boston."
Truly? Is there a history of this sort of thing?
Because it seems rather apropos of recent events...
You don't have to be old. You just have to have Wikipedia.
"Banned in Boston" was a phrase employed from the late 19th century through Prohibition to describe a literary work, motion picture, or play prohibited from distribution or exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts. During this period, Boston officials had wide authority to ban works featuring "objectionable" content, and often banned works with sexual or foul language.
In this special 3-minute-long episode of 24, agent Jack Bauer tracks down the members of the deadly Aqua Teen Hunger Force in order to stop the LED Lite Brites from blowing up
RE: The Word Theory Must be Stricken from Scientific Thought
Topic: Miscellaneous
2:46 pm EST, Feb 7, 2007
skullaria wrote: Therefore, we must strike the word THEORY from all talk of science, unless it is indeed, purely conjecture, as the word THEORY must mean DOUBTFUL to a large percentage of the public.(2,5,6,7)
I kind of agree with this. The general use of the word theory is the same as the scientific use of the word hypothesis. If the scientific world choose a different word than theory, it would be less confusing. The problem is that I think scientists were probably here first, and that people say theory when they mean to say hypothesis because hypothesis is an awkward word.
Hack 1 is "Be Media." Often, if you want to record audio or video or even just get in the door to some official function, you have to present your bona fides ahead of time.
I've long had an interest in Internet [and] Governance, so when I heard the United Nations was throwing a big party called WSIS on the topic, I figured I'd go see how the pros did it.
I'm not really a journalist, but I've played one on the Internet, so I got O'Reilly & Associates to name me their international tech reporter and applied for credentials. O'Reilly didn't make the cut as "bona fide media," so I reapplied as a stringer for the second-largest English-language newspaper in Bangkok.
Carl Malamud, the technology leader for the Center for American Progress, posted this greatly entertaining collection of ten ways to hack the government!
