Posts Tagged ‘tips’

My method is foolproof!

Posted: May 15, 2009 by datechguy in tech
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Glenn Links to a very useful article for ATM users:

When Brooklyn, N.Y., resident Nick McGlynn stepped into a Chase bank in April, he quickly noticed something was wrong with one of the ATMs. “I saw a mirror that looked out of place,” McGlynn says. “It was in the center of the ATM, above the keypad. So I pulled on it and it came right off. Then I pulled on the card reader and it came off too. They were both held in place with double-sided tape.”

McGlynn had discovered an ATM skimmer—a device attached to an ATM by criminals looking to steal bank card information and/or PINs. The simplest skimmer setups involve little more than a $300 magnetic stripe reader and a hidden camera aimed at the ATM keypad. The reader snaps up your card’s information, and the camera records your PIN as you enter it. With this information, a perpetrator can create and use a phony plastic clone of your card. Or, if the setup features a camera aimed at the card reader so as to record the card’s printed security code, they can also use the information to make online purchases.

My method is to avoid this is perfect. I don’t have an ATM. card and all my banks know me by face and hat.

Remember technology advances help crooks too.

Good thing we have mainstream journalists…

Posted: May 7, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, oddities, tech
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…otherwise stuff like this might happen:

Shane Fitzgerald, 22, a final-year student studying sociology and economics at University College Dublin, told the newspaper he placed the quote on the website as an experiment when doing research on globalisation.

He quoted Oscar-winning composer Jarre as saying, “One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life.

“When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear.”

The quote was posted on Wikipedia shortly after Jarre’s death and later appeared in obituaries in major British, Indian and Australian newspapers.

He was rather surprised:

“I didn’t expect it to go that far. I expected it to be in blogs and sites, but on mainstream quality papers? I was very surprised about,” he said.

He said the hoax remained undiscovered for weeks until he emailed the newspapers that had been deceived to tell them that they had published an inaccurate quote.

The Irish Times said that despite some newspapers removing the quote from their websites or carrying a correction and the fact that it had been dropped by Wikipedia, it remained intact on dozens of blogs, websites and newspapers. (emphasis mine)

Via Stop the ACLU. Joe “what would we do without mainstream newspapers” Scarborough must have been shocked but in addition to canard of the superior fact checking and diligence of reporters and newspapers vs bloggers it highlights two important internet points:

#1 Wikapedia is not and should not be a primary source on anything. I will link to it on occasion but remember the Glenn Reynolds rule concerning it.

I’ve had my own problems with them in the past, though short-lived and (to me at least) no very big deal. My sense is that the wiki format works pretty well when issues are uncontroversial, but that it doesn’t handle politics very well.

And if you don’t believe it check out this, this, this, this, this and this. (most via Glenn)

Second and rather important. Remember that web pages are often forgotten. If bad information gets out on net and is corrected at it’s primary source that doesn’t mean that it will ever be corrected in the sites that copyed it. Keep this in mind whenever you read any web site. Even mine.

I thought apple was the company of the people?

Posted: April 28, 2009 by datechguy in tech
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I think that Apple might actually be a business out for profit:

Reports of cracked hinges on the laptop are nothing new, but we always assumed Apple would eventually ‘fess up to the problem and comp those repairs. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and we just got another report of a hapless MacBook Air owner who has a broken hinge that Apple says will cost $800 to repair, despite the fact the laptop is under warranty. Our own MacBook Air Rev. A had the exact same problem — the hinge becomes loose over time, then suddenly catches and cracks from normal use, it’s not from undue stress — and Apple did the repair for free, but only after we escalated the issue to a manager, who let us know how very nice of them that was. From reading various reports, that seems the exception to Apple’s repair policy, which lists this sort of damage as “accidental,” and we’re wondering how widespread this issue may be.

This would make a very interesting Mac vs PC counter ad.

Via Glenn.

Mac Zombie? Count me among the unsurprised

Posted: April 19, 2009 by datechguy in tech
Tags: ,

I really shouldn’t be smiling but I’ve been waiting for something like this:

Malware hunters at Symantec have discovered a direct link between a malicious file embedded in pirated copies of Apple’s iWork 09 software and what appears to be the first Mac OS X botnet launching denial-of-service attacks.

Writing in the current issue of Virus Bulletin (subscription required), researchers Mario Ballano Barcena and Alfredo Pesoli found two malware variants — OSX.Iservice and OSX.Iservice.B — using different techniques to obtain the user’s password and take control of the infected Mac machine.

Quite a few of the commentators are actually full of glee rather than my knowing smile but one commentator makes the same point that PC users should know as well:

While it’s notable to discover a zombie Mac infection, keep in mind that this wasn’t an OS exlpoit. It was an install virus like the ones you used to see back in 1990. People who download and install pirate software should expect their computers to be compromised by a virus.

The commentator is exactly right. Risky behavior is the root of a lot of trouble that people have with PC’s and those who go to a Mac and think they will be safe forever will have another think coming.

Via Glenn.

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