Via Lunchbreath's photostream on flickr
Monday, March 15, 2010
Businesses Playing Fast and Loose With Your Credit Card Number
This isn't really a new phenomena, but Privacy Digest has a story up about how some businesses are selling your credit card number to other companies, and in some cases the less trustworthy purchasing firms firms are placing unauthorized charges onto the cards without customer authorization.How is this possible, you ask?
It's called "post-transaction marketing," and it's mostly legal. It's also annoyingly unethical.
From Privacy Digest:
Internet companies call this "post transaction marketing." To consumers it might feel more like electronic pickpocketing.
Some time after Frison-Thornton gave her credit card number to Classmates, a survey or free trial offer probably popped up. It didn't ask for her credit card number or any personal information so she clicked it.
But she didn't know that meant classmates would sell her credit card number to another company, like "Privacy Matters" which, ironically, offers a credit card protection service. Yet it put unwanted charges on Frison-Thornton's bill.
Pretty slimy, eh?
Internet companies argue that customers agree to the release of their credit card information in disclaimers often buried in fine print.
We're talking millions of dollars here, yet that sound you (don't) hear is the lack of consumer outrage or corrective action by regulators.
Buyer beware.
Microsoft Offers Temp Measure for Most Recent IE Flaw
Microsoft claims that the first stopgap is a "solution for peer factory in iepeers.dll," while the second fix enables Data Execution Prevention (DEP) for those versions of Internet Explorer that happen to support DEP.
Both measures can be downloaded to a USB flash drive and run on affected machines one at a time. That's helpful for home users or a small IT shop, but it's not particularly scalable to the enterprise environment, and there doesn't seem to be any mention of automated deployment methods.
Read the updated advisory to get the details regarding which IE/Windows versions are at risk and to download the "Fit It" code, and make sure you have a plan to roll back the changes if you notice anything not working properly after you run the fix.
No word yet on when Microsoft plans on formally releasing a patch, but with exploit code being posted online, the pressure is on to get something out quickly. We'll see if this means another out-of-band critical patch release.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
National Broadband Plan - Performance Instead of Profit
When it comes to high-speed Internet access in the US, there are several common complaints:
In fact, when you look at some readily-available statistics, the disparity is glaring:
The FCC, as part of The Broadband Initiatives funded by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, has set up Broadband.gov as part of an overall effort to improve high-speed Internet access.
One of the key features is an online speed test. Yes, I know it asks for your location information, but the government already knows who you are and where you live. The NSA has been reading your email for decades and knows of your proclivity toward adult sites that you are hiding (somewhat unsuccessfully) from your significant other, so get over that already.
By collecting these speed tests and associated geographic information, the FCC will be able to provide a comprehensive analysis of user-initiated performance indicators from a variety of locations, ISPs, and other key areas such day of the week, time of day, and so on.
Broadband providers, not surprisingly, aren't thrilled by this initiative. After years of acting as gatekeepers to high-speed access, creating artificial scarcity to keep their costs down and their profits up, ISPs are facing a two-pronged attack - an administration that believes lower-cost high performance access is critical to remaining competitive globally, and growing support for network neutrality.
Like all things governmental, this initiative will be running straight into the buzzsaw of special interests, corporate cash, and aggressive, misleading lobbying efforts. There's little that we, as users, can do about that, unless you're Warren Buffet, and I'm doubting that you are.
What you can do is to help provide a couple of rounds of ammunition for use in the coming skirmishes by way of your testing data and prolific communication of your views to your effectively-useless members of Congress.
The typical "We have the best health care in the world" crowd can't use that logic when it comes to broadband. Every available piece of data shows that at best we're toward the middle, somewhere between Poland and the Czech Republic. We're playing catch-up to Iceland, people!
Do your part. Run your speed test. Call and email your bought-and-paid-for elected officials. Be a general pain in the ass.
We have nothing to lose but throughput.
- Broadband speeds seldom meet ISP marketing claims
- Lack of competition stifles improved performance and saturation
- Cost per KB is often higher than in other developed countries
In fact, when you look at some readily-available statistics, the disparity is glaring:
The FCC, as part of The Broadband Initiatives funded by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, has set up Broadband.gov as part of an overall effort to improve high-speed Internet access.
One of the key features is an online speed test. Yes, I know it asks for your location information, but the government already knows who you are and where you live. The NSA has been reading your email for decades and knows of your proclivity toward adult sites that you are hiding (somewhat unsuccessfully) from your significant other, so get over that already.
By collecting these speed tests and associated geographic information, the FCC will be able to provide a comprehensive analysis of user-initiated performance indicators from a variety of locations, ISPs, and other key areas such day of the week, time of day, and so on.
Broadband providers, not surprisingly, aren't thrilled by this initiative. After years of acting as gatekeepers to high-speed access, creating artificial scarcity to keep their costs down and their profits up, ISPs are facing a two-pronged attack - an administration that believes lower-cost high performance access is critical to remaining competitive globally, and growing support for network neutrality.
Like all things governmental, this initiative will be running straight into the buzzsaw of special interests, corporate cash, and aggressive, misleading lobbying efforts. There's little that we, as users, can do about that, unless you're Warren Buffet, and I'm doubting that you are.
What you can do is to help provide a couple of rounds of ammunition for use in the coming skirmishes by way of your testing data and prolific communication of your views to your effectively-useless members of Congress.
The typical "We have the best health care in the world" crowd can't use that logic when it comes to broadband. Every available piece of data shows that at best we're toward the middle, somewhere between Poland and the Czech Republic. We're playing catch-up to Iceland, people!
Do your part. Run your speed test. Call and email your bought-and-paid-for elected officials. Be a general pain in the ass.
We have nothing to lose but throughput.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Matt Taibbi on Rush's "Massa" Moment
So El Rushbo used the term "Massa" when discussing NY Gov. David Patterson and whether he would appoint his replacement. Big surprise.
Taibbi speaks for many of us in his response, and I'm especially pleased by this particular passage:
Fuck you, Rush. Fuck your listeners, too.
LIMBAUGH: Are you sure that Paterson appoints or is there a special election?
CALLER: I am reasonably sure that Paterson will be appointing the replacement, assuming that he, you know, doesn’t resign in the next 60 or 90 days.
LIMBAUGH: Let’s assume you’re right. So, David Paterson will become the massa…
CALLER: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: …who gets to appoint whoever gets to take Massa’s place. So, for the first time in his life, Paterson’s gonna be a massa. Interesting, interesting.
Taibbi speaks for many of us in his response, and I'm especially pleased by this particular passage:
It’s not so much that Rush made a racist joke. Nor does it even bother me that the whole premise of the discussion was incorrect — Paterson doesn’t get to appoint a replacement. It’s more that Rush is such an intellectually lazy piece of shit who’s been on dumbly racist autopilot for so long that he literally can’t avoid making a dumb, unfunny black-baiting joke when the opportunity is shoved in front of his face. The minute the conversation switched to a discussion of the black governor Paterson and a guy named “Massa,” who among us didn’t think that Rush was going to go there?
Fuck you, Rush. Fuck your listeners, too.
Death of Democrats? Markos Channels Mark Twain
Mark Twain once stated, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
Markos Moulitsas believes the same can be said of House democrats.
Markos Moulitsas believes the same can be said of House democrats.
Irony - Jon Stewart Tortures Marc Theissen
It's take a village to raise a child, and it takes a comedy show to ask the hard questions.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive - Marc Thiessen Extended Interview Pt. 1 | ||||
| ||||
Most Adulterous Professions
Any survey conducted by AshleyMadison.com - a site designed for those looking to cheat on their significant others - must skew well outside the bell curve, just because of the audience.
1.9 million accounts exist on AshleyMadison.com? Holy infidelity, Batman! That's a lot of people with a proclivity toward perfidiousness.
Of course, these two-timing tools think it's a good idea to put their information into a centralized database that can be subject to, oh, I don't know, subpoena and discovery proceedings? How bright can they be?
Anyway, a check of the underlying data reveals certain professions are more likely to dabble in sexual duplicity than others.
I find it interesting that real estate agents made both lists. What's up with that? And why aren't you stay at home moms playing coupon poker like they did on Mr. Mom?
Via BoingBoing
Image via fakedankaminsky's photostream on flickr
1.9 million accounts exist on AshleyMadison.com? Holy infidelity, Batman! That's a lot of people with a proclivity toward perfidiousness.Of course, these two-timing tools think it's a good idea to put their information into a centralized database that can be subject to, oh, I don't know, subpoena and discovery proceedings? How bright can they be?
Anyway, a check of the underlying data reveals certain professions are more likely to dabble in sexual duplicity than others.
For Women:
1. Teachers
2. Stay-at-home Moms
3. Nurses
4. Administrative Assistants
5. Real Estate Agents
For Men:
1. Physicians
2. Police Officers
3. Lawyers
4. Real Estate Agents
5. Engineers
I find it interesting that real estate agents made both lists. What's up with that? And why aren't you stay at home moms playing coupon poker like they did on Mr. Mom?
Via BoingBoing
Image via fakedankaminsky's photostream on flickr
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