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Comment India's Videocon still makes CRTs / Recycling? (Score 5, Informative) 184

I call bullshit. Sounds like "Dream Arcades" is trying to find out creative ways to announce that they will jack up their refurbishment prices--and their profit margins...

1) An Indian manufacturer named "Videocon" still manufactures CRTs. So, while it's not Sony or some other high-quality manufacturer, they are still making them. In fact, as of a year ago, they were accepting leaded CRT glass for recycling into new CRT TVs. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fresource-recycling.com...
2) There's a warehouse in Columbus, OH, which will likely become an EPA superfund site, that was run by an electronics recycler called Closed Loop--which went bankrupt. It's full of old CRTs that I can imagine could be reused with some minor disassembly & testing. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmotherboard.vice.com%2Fe...

Comment Re:Corporate owned media (Score 1) 660

ComputerWorld has taken up the cause of highlighting all the H1B abuses out there, like the concept of training foreign replacements. They list all company names (e.g. Disney, Abbott Labs, Southern California Electric, University of California, SunTrust), are glad to interview people who are only too happy to badmouth their former employers--often in violation of their severance agreements. Hopefully these companies now realize that there's quite a bit of bad press hurting goodwill. To add, there are many lawyers who are more than happy to take on reverse discrimination lawsuits--further besmirching these companies' "good names" in the process...

The most audacious example was SunTrust saying to its laid-off employees--"as part of your severance, for the next 2 years, you'll need to be available to come into your former office, on weekends, with no pay, to help us if we need it". This sparked a backlash, especially since the words "slavery" & "indentured servitude" started being associated with SunTrust--not to mention some comments by the Dept. of Labor of some states. Took them 4 days to remove that clause... Wonder how that offshore transition is 1.5 years and counting--without that free labor?

http://www.computerworld.com/a...

Comment Re:The US is screwed (Score 1) 660

...needed a programmer at $45k/yr. I was fine with a new college grad...

Really? I graduated with an IT degree and made that salary straight out of college--in 1998.

That's why you couldn't find anyone--you're so far off the mark as to what you should be paying... Recent (under)grads with most business degrees make that much, with IT notably more--like $55k+.

But now you're part of the problem. You hired a foreigner and ultimately undercut wages for US citizens & permanent residents. Thanks...

Comment Let's go after the low-level phone people as well (Score 3, Insightful) 139

In addition to those who perpetuated the scam, I feel that since the Thune, India police know the low-level employees who actually spoke from the scripts, I'd love to see the US indict those people, have them beg their families for Rupees to fight extradition in an Indian court, lose that fight, put them on a plane to the US, then let them beg their families again for $$$ for an expensive American lawyer, then rot in a Federal prison for the next 5+ years, then be banned from the USA for life over the felony conviction. With enough stories like that to go around, even destitute people will refuse to work for scammers--including those working for "Windows Company Support".

I have no sympathy for anyone at any level of this scam, including the low-level people following the scripts and making/answering the calls--those pretending to be IRS agents & scaring old ladies into giving up their life savings. These people know English and therefore know they are impersonating an agent of a foreign government (in this case, the big bad US Government, and its unlimited resources). It stands to reason that the foreign government in question might come after them one day. They probably also got a (teeny tiny) cut of each successful con, which makes this all the worse... Make an example out of them...

Submission + - Feds charge 61 people over Indian call center IRS scams

BUL2294 writes: Following the arrests earlier this month in India of call center employees posing as IRS or immigration agents, USA Today and Consumerist are reporting that the US Department of Justice has charged 61 people in the US and India of facilitating the scam, bilking millions from Americans thinking they were facing immediate arrest and prosecution.

"According to the indictment — which covers 20 individuals in the U.S. and 32 people and five call centers in India — since about 2012 the defendants used information obtained from data brokers and other sources to call potential victims impersonating officers from the IRS or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services."

Comment Re:Place Smart Devices on an Isolated VLAN (Score 1) 112

For now, your only concern is that your Samsung Smart TV isn't infecting your other IoT devices? You'll still be mighty pissed off when a "legitimate" ad network lets some ransomware masquerading as an ad come across one of the extra ads Samsung wants to display on your TV... But hey, it's only $200--until you realize that Samsung has no fix or security update... So, nothing prevents you from getting the same ransomware over and over...

And even then, it's only a matter of time before someone figures out how to use your Android-based TV to infect your other Android-based IoT devices on your VLAN.

Comment In the USA, wouldn't the FCRA apply? (Score 1) 371

So, in the USA, I'm curious to know why the poster doesn't think the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) wouldn't apply in this case? If this entity pieces together an "ability to pay" score, based on something I wrote ("oh, I can't pay my bills this month because my pregnant wife & I were boozing way too much!"), wouldn't that data be a credit report? And, the FCRA is written in a way that if any part of a report contains a credit report or score, which may also include ancillary data points like employment, statements by others, medical tidbits, etc., the whole thing is a credit report... Which means, for a denial, the landlord has to provide the credit reporting agency info: "Score Assured". In addition, Score Assured has to provide a free report, once a year, to any US resident who asks, or whenever their data is used in a denial action...

Kinda makes me want to rock the boat, send them a letter containing an FCRA free credit report request, and see what happens...

Comment Re:US Legal system (Score 1) 571

If you read the article, you'd see Zavodnik did go to small claims court asking for $6000 (an already insane amount), but lost because he had already thrown away the printer. So, he refiled in a real court for $30k for breach of contract, fraud, etc. Basically, he didn't like his outcome the first time so he doubled-down...

Comment Re:What's changed since '92 in this regard? (Score 1) 347

Bullshit. It was enough of a burden in 1992 for the Supreme Court to say that it was. Back in '92 we had computers; now having smartphones doesn't change that fact. Retailers that set up a physical store in some location only have to know that ONE location's taxing structure. That's it. Having 50 states' worth of sales tax structures would be difficult enough, let alone tens of thousands of taxing districts.

You also managed to ignore audits. When Butt, MT sends a you request for an audit, because you paid a small amount of tax to them for some protein bars shipped to a resident that "might be the food tax, might be the junk food tax", good luck dealing with whatever arcane laws exist at the state, county, and local level to describe food. Again, multiply by tens of thousands of taxing districts, and you see what I mean.

Software helps, but it's not the panacea solution that you think it is. You're not going to scan a UPC code into your taxing software and have it spit out a tax %. Such software is inherently out-of-date, and way too expensive for anyone doing less than $1MM of business...

Comment Can someone explain the enumeration aspect? (Score 1) 159

So, here's my question... According to the Trustwave article (and someone who doesn't know Javascript), buried in the 12,000 lines of code...

Our suspicions grew further when de-obfuscation of the script revealed that it tries to enumerate the following list of security products and tools in order to filter out security researchers and users with protections that would prevent exploitation ... If the code doesn't find any of these programs, it continues with the flow and appends an iframe to the body of the html that leads to Angler EK landing page."

So, if I understand this properly, if the Javascript code finds these files, it doesn't serve up the malware landing page. So, if I understand it properly, adware networks, along with any other site's Javascript code, can see what files I have on my PC? WTF--can I shut off that ability? I can see no justifiable reason why any Internet site, short of one or two I might whitelist, would need to be able to access such info...

Comment What about incompatible "dummy" hardware? (Score 2) 720

Stupid question, but one that should be explored... Since GWX analyzes your system to make sure you're compatible with Windows 10, does it refuse to install (or better yet, not download 5-6GB), if it finds an incompatible system? So, is there some sort of dummy driver that could be installed (that appears in Device Manager) that would cause GWX to determine that the system is incompatible? Someone with some Windows driver programming skills should be able to make that... Throw in some extra code that, if uploaded to Microsoft for analysis, would refuse to run on anything higher than Windows 8.1...

Comment How about the Audi Navigation System... (Score 0) 481

Are there any decent hacks--or better yet, replacement firmwares / jailbreaking techniques out there for the Audi Navigation System (RNS-E)? This is Audi's system, used in 2005-2010 models, so I doubt there's any real encryption or security measures to prevent that...

Hopefully, there's some way to set it up for Bluetooth streaming...

Comment What about IE9 on Vista/Win2008? (Score 2) 175

So what is Microsoft going to do for IE9 on Vista and Server 2008, both of which are EOL much later than January, 2016? Vista's EOL is April, 2017 while Windows Server 2008's EOL is January, 2020. I wouldn't want an unpatched IE9 running on either OS, where the OS continues to receive security updates, but the browser does not...

Windows Server 2008 is still widely used as it's the last Windows Server OS available as x86... (And Windows Server 2008 R2 is not a free update...)

Comment I live in Chicago, and you HAVE IT WRONG... (Score 2) 200

So, if you actually bothered to look into the laws of Illinois, you'd find that a school zone sign says the following:

"SPEED LIMIT 20 ON SCHOOL DAYS WHEN CHILDREN ARE PRESENT"

No flashing lights indicating when (e.g. in Ohio, it's a school zone when the MPH is lit and the yellow lights are flashing), and so on. To add to the confusion, good luck finding "regular" (non-school zone) signs in Chicago. Supposedly that's 30 MPH when no sign is present, but unlike the suburbs, they don't have that info on signs at the city border...

To add, back in the early 80s, due to the confusion over this sign, a state attorney general put out some guidance saying that a police officer needs to see a "student" (e.g. a child under 18) within eyeshot, when school is in session. These speed cameras don't do that. (Of course, state law could be changed to have times or flashing lights, but that hasn't happened). Then, Rahm & the camera companies wanted to put wide-angle lenses to see what "children" could be found, but then parents started filing lawsuits about faceless red-light camera companies taking pictures of their children, for the benefit of the camera companies. (Not sure what happened with that...)

To add, about a year ago, a lawyer filed a class action on these cameras, because people got school zone speed camera tickets on a Sunday evening in July...

So, sooner or later, a court will rule against the city, and quite badly... Heck, refunds are already happening en masse...

Submission + - Copyright Office rules on DRM circumvention in cars, devices, video games. 1

BUL2294 writes: Consumerist is reporting that the U.S. Library of Congress' Copyright Office has published their newest rules regarding DRM circumvention. Much to the chagrin of car makers & agricultural vehicle manufacturers, DRM circumvention, with the exception of telmatics ("black box") and entertainment systems, and anything that would run afoul of DOT or EPA regulations, is now allowed for "diagnosis, repair or lawful modification of a vehicle function". In addition, jailbreaking is now extended to tablets, wearables, and smart TVs, but not to single-purpose devices like e-readers. An exemption has been carved out for security researchers to hack cars, voting machines, and medical devices--as long as that device is not being used for its purpose & is in an isolated environment. Finally, owners of abandoned video games that require server authentication (where such authentication is no longer available) may also circumvent DRM. DRM circumvention is NOT allowed for jailbreaking gaming systems & e-readers, and does not allow for "format-shifting" (e.g. moving e-books from one platform to another).

The full text of the new rules, is available here, and will be published in the Federal Register on October 28, 2015.

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