Don’t you just want to hug him?
A 31 year old social worker was mugged by a teen at knifepoint, and then offers the mugger his jacket. The story continues, but I don’t want to give away the ending.
Bottom line, I’m glad there’re at least a few people who work in social services who give 120%.
I hereby pledge that I shall never, ever, use firearms as part of any “DIY” project.
“hackers”, in the “internet hooligan” sense of the term, decided to do something especially disgusting.
They posted tons of links and things on a forum for sufferers of epilepsy. These links and things led to pages with pictures of flashing lights and colours, and whatever it is that sets off pattern-sensitive epileptics.
According to Wired’s article on the topic, this could be the first time that a computer attack has caused physical harm (I suppose that depends on definitions though - I’m sure someone’s gotten a heart attack or something after they lost especially valuable data due to a computer attack).
Here I am, minding my own business, trying to build a nuclear bomb, and then I find out that it’s already been patented.
(though, where it gets neat is that the Manhattan Project was all about security, secrecy, and making sure that nothing ever leaked… and then they had a locked room in the patent office filled with instructions about all the neat stuff in the bomb, written so any engineer could understand it).
My tags be bangin’
The telemarketing industry is “afraid of hackers” adding tons of phone numbers to Canada’s Do Not Call registry. If the hackers are successful, people who want telemarketing phone calls might be deprived! (OH NO!)
The Do Not Call registry clearly needs a costly and cumbersome process in order to ensure it’s not abused. I recommend having a single desk placed at the ALERT research station in Northern Canada, which only operates during the months of the year in which the road is snowed out and bringing in supplies and large amounts of people are possible, and only outside during snow storms, and would require people to leave a body part behind for future verification (my thinking is this - pad to take finger prints? Expensive. Hacking off a finger? Cheap. Plus, they’re in the world’s biggest freezer; they’d just have to keep the polar bears away).
I think that that system is probably what the telemarketers would prefer.
In other news, Michael Geist continues to be awesome and has created ”iOptOut”. Due to all the exceptions in the call registry, you’re still likely to get a lot of phone calls, even if you DO register with the…er…registry (for example, any business you’ve had dealings with in the last 18 months can solicit to you still). You submit your phone number to his site, and then it sends email to whatever businesses you select, demanding that your number be black-listed with regards to solicitation, which the companies are required to abide by.
EDIT: It appeals to my sense of humour that the Yukon Liberal Party is listed in the opt-out database; just becuse it’ll probably take a few days before they are swamped with more opt-outs then there are citizens in the Yukon. Of course, if the do not call legislation were stronger, we wouldn’t have to pull crap like this at all…