Zaphod's Techdirt Profile

Zaphod

About Zaphod

Zaphod's Comments comment rss

  • Mar 22, 2010 @ 08:56pm

    Swap Meet Louie

    Wow, busted for sellin' da swap meet louie on line.

  • Feb 03, 2010 @ 09:09am

    Ummm, protecting brand?

    "The objective is to bring some clarity and some consistency, and to ensure our brand is properly protected."

    Ummm, I thought you protected a brand with a registered trademark? Isn't data un-trademarkable, and by itself, shouldn't information be unpatentable? (There is a case regarding just that worming it's way through the courts now regarding DNA)

    Are trademarks a U.S.A. only thing? Perhaps you need a little more variety in your attorney pool?

    Zap :)

  • Dec 29, 2009 @ 05:33pm

    $30,000 ? Try $2,000!

    Back around September 8th Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corp. (grc.com) told all the nitty-gritty about how to crack GSM nearly on the fly. All that is needed is a couple of terrabyte HDDs (Rainbow Tables), a laptop, and a special radio device.

    He told all on his podcast "Security Now". The podcast with all the pertinent info is here:

    http://twit.tv/sn213

    Transcript here:

    http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-213.txt

    That should put an end to the cell companies blowing smoke up places it doesn't belong. Also, it's amazing the cell providers kept a lid on it this long!

  • Nov 25, 2009 @ 06:25am

    Strange, I remember an "attorney" for Scientology doing the same things to a detractor's hard drives, and other documents.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoayLCRkF4I

    Someone coming into my house without a clear writ of seizure/warrant/or my permission is going to get ventilated.

  • Nov 24, 2009 @ 07:21am

    Re: Re:

    What they (hulu) ought to be doing is scanning the pages where they are embedded, and then adjusting their ads on a play-by-play basis to deliver relevant content...

    Wait... Google/YouTube may not like that idea.

    Nevermind.

  • Oct 07, 2009 @ 04:24pm

    Eolas

    Will someone please take Eolas out of our collective misery?

    Perhaps the creators of the webserver they are hosting their site on should revoke their rights to use.

    Interestingly enough... Eolas rescrambled is E-salo, as in Electronic Salo o' le 120 Giornate di Sodoma. Yep, happy faced fascist tyrants they are, and just about as harmful to the mind, in my opinion.

  • Sep 22, 2009 @ 12:55am

    Wait a minute...

    "Freedom to Access Content. First, consumers should have access to their choice of legal content."

    Ummmm, who decides what is legal? Does anyone really know what is legal from day to day, when political correctness is running amok through D.C.?

    Let us just drop legal from that sentence...

    "Freedom to Access Content. First, consumers should have access to their choice of content."

    And now the big data pushers can't kill the bill with the 1st Amendment.

  • Aug 27, 2009 @ 05:04am

    @ ASH

    Technically, it does exist, as magnetic domains on an HDD in a server somewhere. These magnetic domains are controlled by the arrangement of proton spin axises, as real as any stack of bricks that make a house.

    Now he didn't make the HDD, but you didn't make the bricks (or whatever) your house is built out of either. And your house, is just an arrangement of materials, dictated by intelligence. Does that make your house and possessions intellectual property? If so, can I do with them what I wish, perhaps, burn them to the ground? Hacking Mike's site is equitable to that, in several of the philosophical mannerisms you are clinging so tenaciously to.

  • Aug 25, 2009 @ 06:20am

    Re: Fucks sake

    Amen brother!

    Scratch Metallica, scratch Maiden...

    Let's hope Priest, AC/DC, Motorhead, and ZZTop keep their heads.

  • Aug 25, 2009 @ 05:25am

    One kind of ethical hacking...

    One kind of ethical hacking comes to mind, and that is hacking skiddies. Believe it or not, there are some devious dirty tricks one can pull, to totally reverse the tables and expose their networks.

    One thing they really hate is when you study their injection attempts, and then make "booby traps" consisting of scripts that sit in the location of exploitable files you don't use, and return fake probe responses saying you are hackable. They then they try to inject their stupid script/shell that has contained therein their favorite IRC network and #channel, plus the botnet command password, and commands.

    Personally, I just upload the shells to Avira so they can make new signatures for Anti-Vir (free *nix & windows versions available).

    Now that's pwning. (/me spits the bad taste out of his mouth caused by using leetspeak)

  • Jul 08, 2009 @ 01:42am

    Pah! yuD veQ!

    Those "Klingon" tokhe straav'mey , aren't even speaking abbreviated battlespeak.

    Phonetic gibberish, and bad phonetic gibberish too.

    Looks like the campaign has allready shot itself in the foot.

    Translations...
    "yuD veQ" = Dishonest Garbage

    "tokhe straav'mey" = Willing Slaves

  • Jun 08, 2009 @ 06:16am

    If only they would block the real bad stuff...

    If only this firewall, were a real firewall, and could block all the botnets that are flinging spam out of China.

    But those run on server farms, and probably with the government's blessings due to the funds they generate.

    Wonder if they will realize that any .php equipped server farm can become a proxy server in minutes, and that they had better keep an eye on those too.

    Meanwhile, I'll keep blocking all of China and Korea from my website, it's only a couple hundred IP ranges.

  • May 08, 2009 @ 07:12pm

    I have never worried about terrorists. Neither have my friends. We keep our sidearms handy. I prefer my accurized aftermarket M1911 .45 ACP.

    We are, however, afraid of flying, courthouses, or going to other places that don't allow our guns. When we lose the right to defend ourselves, we are defenseless, no matter the supposed security blanket wrapped around us by uncaring bureaucrats far far away.

    A good armed American will always act in defense of his fellow Americans, even if he doesn't agree with them, against all threats, foreign or domestic.

  • May 08, 2009 @ 04:09am

    Gee...

    Does this mean AC/DC gets to sue for every AC/DC Multimeter out there?

    And any true Maiden fans can spot the correct Iron Maiden logo from a distance. Iron Maiden have never changed their font, or colors, except in rare one-offs.

    I think even Ed the Head is rotflol on this one.

    Zap

  • May 04, 2009 @ 05:04pm

    I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

    I still say any time some entity threatens Google, and attempts to carve off a slice of Google's pie for themselves...

    Google should take the pie away. It doesn't matter if that entity is a media giant like Viacom, a "rights" group like the RIAA or MPAA, or a government wanting to tax them from abroad, they need to be reprimanded. They need to see what the internet would be like without Google, or any of their associated engines. Yes, this means in an act of solidarity, Yahoo, MSN search, and all the other engines should pull their services, just for a time, and simultaneously so.

    It's time for people to stop trying to take money for what they did not create. Casual digital pirates don't create, but they don't take money for other people's work. Google doesn't create, and they don't take money for their content (They take money for services rendered to those who wish to use them for an advertising medium, and thus support our free use.)

    *** conversely ***

    Governments take money, because they can. RIAA and MPAA, and their affiliated companies take money because they can. None of them create content themselves, and neither give back what is due to the content creators. If you don't believe me, try to create content without playing by the rules of any of those groups, and watch what happens. The gov. will use something like the FTC, IRS, or DoJ to shut you down. The media-opoly will suppress your content under a mountain of takedowns, lawsuits, and paid shills in the press disdaining your work. However, offer yourself up on their plate, and everything's fine.

    Yes, this was a cloaked attack against the legal profession in general, Mike M. excluded. How about let's tear away the cloak? If you look at it honestly, behind most of these problems of people wanting something for no effort on their part, you will find an attorney making a buck. It's that simple.

    Oh, and don't forget the attorney making a buck defending you too. Unless he's doing it all pro bono, then he's a walking god.

  • Apr 28, 2009 @ 03:50am

    My policy...

    Ya know, since I use google adsense on my site, perhaps I should start my privacy policy with the simple line...

    "CAVEAT: Usage of this site veritably guarantees some of your information, will be disclosed to me, and some third parties."

    Then they can weed through the morass of sargassosistic legaleese knowing that at least they have been warned...

    And I just did this before hitting the submit button here.

    Honesty can be so refreshing.

  • Apr 26, 2009 @ 07:30pm

    On Piracy...

    The real pirates of the music industry, is the industry themselves.

    They steal the booty of the artists, and if an artist resists them, they are silenced. But if they are successful in seizure of the artist's goods, they will make millions, while leaving the artist a pittance.

    I know an artist with a previous #1 hit. Not only did the industry seize his goods (actual final cut of the song), but they tried to credit the material to a different, more popular artist. The only party he has ever seen a check from, is ASCAP. Never a dime from RIAA, never a dime from the MPAA (Yes, his hit was a movie theme).

    Every time I hear the industry bang their noismakers, I think of my friend, and say some real foul, officious, degrading, demeaning, low, and disgusting comments about hungry vulture attorneys.

  • Apr 25, 2009 @ 12:45pm

    Pahahahahah! :D

    "You Kids Suck", if there has ever been a case to out someone as being an entertainment industry shill, you just provided it.

    Mike, you oughta get the details of that post's connection, so I can add it to ZB Block's ban list to keep them off my site.

  • Apr 25, 2009 @ 12:18pm

    True competition.

    There is no competition when it comes to cable companies since they do not have to play by the same rules as the telepone companies.

    They can't claim there's competition, until they accept designation as COMMON CARRIERS, just like the telco. This is where they can be paid a reasonable rate for unlimited short-haul data services to a local ISP, that then bridges that network, to the internet. I know DOCSIS can do this, but they don't want you to know that. This would be more like what DSL ISPs have to deal with.

    And like DSL short-haul providers, they can play the doubledipping game, by getting most of the customers to sign with them, and thus get both short haul fees, plus ISP fees (Qwest is set up as such, all other ISP users must pay their access charge, plus their ISP fees). This in the end would bring more profit to the CableCos... but they are too antiquated, and unadaptable to realize this, or reap the rewards.

    Since they aren't broadcast, they also skate around alot of FCC regulations, even if their lines leak like a sieve and cause much interference. Also, most cablecos have such bad equipment, the source of said RFI, they cannot take advantage of DOCSIS 3, so it's only a matter of time before the DSL in the area surpasses their speed.

    Let us not forget fiber drops. New homes, at least in my area, are getting direct fiber to demarcation (telco). This will totally blow the CableISPs completely out of the water.

    If they want to survive, they had better learn how to play nice, act nice, and provide value. If they don't, they will be something I tell my grandkids about with much laughter, as a parable about why one should not mess with customers.

  • Apr 16, 2009 @ 12:02am

    Papers & The Net

    Odd, my local newspaper, trib.com , was the first decent local ISP in town. Of course, this is when Howard Publications ran the show.

    Then Lee Publishing bought our paper, saw no future in being having an ISP that operated also as their crack in-house IT department... so that was the end of that relationship, the ISP was spun off into it's own outfit tribcsp.com ...

    And is now going gangbusters, meanwhile the paper that gave them birth, is shrinking both in content, quality, and physical size! The paper's website, instead of being informative and useful, for a time became what could best be described as an ad-whore. Now they have toned down the 75% adspace on their site, but put in a fairly LOUD (audio compression) video ad unit... just what I want when I am in the office, checking my news at lunch (NOT!).

    I bemoan the demise of Howard Publications, but as far as the ISP, which I am still with, I couldn't be happier.

    This just goes to show that certian people are prone to thinking emotionally and sensationally, and don't belong and can't compete in the realm of critcal thinking. So, as the balloon of hot air runs out, it makes the most noise and moves wildly. Expect alot more of this hyperbole and illogic, as we move out of the era of the printed word, and into the era of the photonic word.

    Keeping in mind what I have said, it should be fun for those who can rise above the noise, and watch this. The dying flails of a beast spoiled rotten by isolation, can be fun and educational, in the light of justice and fairness.

More comments from Zaphod >>