Well, there haven't been a lot of postings since there hasn't been a whole lot to post. Dealing with some health issues that are drastically affecting my dominant arm, and haven't been able to do much of anything for the last 2-3 weeks or so.
At this point it looks like I'm having some big nerve issues that are causing pain & spasms and it appears that some muscles in my shoulder & arm are essentially cut off from nerve impulses except for pain - effectively paralyzed. Also got diagnosed with arthritis in my neck. All holdovers, I'm sure, from my car wreck 10 bloody years ago.
I'll admit that it's freaking me the hell out, but I should know more after my MRI next week. I'm crossing my fingers for good news.
Showing posts with label fuck up central. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fuck up central. Show all posts
Friday, November 4, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
"MLK made a new quote today. Holy shit, he IS risen!" or "Why you should do research before you parrot shit on your Facebook or Twitter feed"
I love quotes. Nothing sums up an event perfectly quite like a well-timed quote. Today seemed like no exception when Osama bin Laden's supposed death (pics or it didn't happen!) sparked the greater collective of the internet hive mind into action by throwing the following quote up on their Twitter or Facebook feeds,
Well, it's a nice sentiment, albeit a bit naively idealogical while being bitingly topical. At face value, it seems to be the perfect quote, the VERY thing to be said about this particular moment in time, by one of the greatest men in our recent history. The problem? MLK never said it. At least not all of it.
The part that's so amazingly topical...you know, the "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy" part? Yep...not MLK. That bit was made up somewhere in the Twitterverse, before going viral across the in-tard-net. Now if you try to google any chunk of that particular phrase, you're bombarded with nothing but page after page of Twitter feeds and Facebook updates. People have filled their Tumblrs, flogged their Flickrs, and blogged their blogging hearts out, and all without having done one iota of research.
Now that's not to say that at least part of it wasn't legit. The rest of the quote was indeed part of a sermon delivered by the Reverend Doctor on finding forgiveness, delivered at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama on Christmas in the year 1957. I won't (mis)quote Martin Luther King's speech - that's already been done enough today. If I may be allowed, however, to paraphrase what was said so much today as my own personal commentary:
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King Jr
Well, it's a nice sentiment, albeit a bit naively idealogical while being bitingly topical. At face value, it seems to be the perfect quote, the VERY thing to be said about this particular moment in time, by one of the greatest men in our recent history. The problem? MLK never said it. At least not all of it.
The part that's so amazingly topical...you know, the "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy" part? Yep...not MLK. That bit was made up somewhere in the Twitterverse, before going viral across the in-tard-net. Now if you try to google any chunk of that particular phrase, you're bombarded with nothing but page after page of Twitter feeds and Facebook updates. People have filled their Tumblrs, flogged their Flickrs, and blogged their blogging hearts out, and all without having done one iota of research.
Now that's not to say that at least part of it wasn't legit. The rest of the quote was indeed part of a sermon delivered by the Reverend Doctor on finding forgiveness, delivered at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama on Christmas in the year 1957. I won't (mis)quote Martin Luther King's speech - that's already been done enough today. If I may be allowed, however, to paraphrase what was said so much today as my own personal commentary:
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious brain cells, as a shocked populace struggles to express itself, and finds twitter. Returning ignorance for ignorance multiplies ignorance, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Ignorance cannot drive out ignorance: only research can do that, so read a goddamn book already, you dumb bastards." RC
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Playstation Network data breach is a bloody mess - how to protect yourself, from the perspective of a former fraud analyst
So, I'm one of the minority among my group of friends that has and plays a PS3. Let me preface this rancor with the fact that, generally speaking, I love my console - I find it to be a much better media relay than my XBox 360 (when the wifi isn't tweaking like a speed junkie), and the graphics are generally prettier. However, the folks who run the infrastructure behind the ill-fated and currently offline Playstation Network are a bunch of mouth breathing idiots.
The PSN had been down since April 17th, with little to no information as to why. Rumors were abound as to the cause, and given the attacks by hacker activist group Anonymous the week before over Sony's treatment of Geohot (the guy who hacked the PS3 firmware), a lot of us figured it was an extended DDoS attack. Of course, the rumors of the involvement of a major hack and data breach started within a couple days, with Sony finally getting off their collective asses and admitting to an "external intrusion" as of April 22.
What kills though, much like the official Japanese reaction to the Fukushima disaster, was the lack of an admission of a problem from Sony. Sony didn't wind up warning their customers that there was a MASSIVE intrusion, and that MILLIONS of customers' personal information was compromised until April 26th, A FULL 10 DAYS after the incident happened!!! Especially with the speed that fraudsters can use your info (I have lots of personal experience - I used to investigate ID theft for T-Mobile), a delay like this is completely unconscionable!
Sony has now admitted via e-mail that "Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."
This is a scary amount of information in the hands of the wrong people, fraudsters who can do a frightening amount with very little personal information, and can use what little they have to get more. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security because credit cards "may or may not have been compromised". A tremendous amount of damage can be done without a credit card number.
What's frightening beyond this, is that Sony STILL doesn't know the extent of the breach, or if they do, they're playing those cards awfully close to the chest. When it comes to the level of comprised personal information that we see here, delaying the vital information to the victims is utterly unforgivable.
I, for one, have lost a great deal of faith in Sony, and am greatly considering whether or not I want to cull my PS3 from the herd, as it were. Ironically, I paid for my first subscription to Playstation Plus (Sony's equivalent to XBL Gold) on the day the network went down, and of course, there's no word in regards to compensation for the lost time on our subscriptions. At the very least, Sony needs to step up to the plate and provide credit monitoring for the people affected by their lack of security.
Now, if you're caught up in this debacle, try not to panic. It's going to be really important to take some simple steps to help get this under control. First, call your bank and advise them of the data breach. You'll want to ask them if there's been any suspicious activity on your account, and may want to go as far as getting a replacement debit/credit card, preferably with a new number. If, for whatever goofy ass reason, you chose to have the same password for your PSN account as the e-mail account you log in with, you're going to want to change that ASAP, along with any other important sites that use the same login/password combo. Next, you're going to want to check your credit report with ALL THREE credit bureaus for any suspicious activity, possibly even going as far as to request a fraud alert be placed in your file. There are 2 different types of fraud alert, an initial alert lasting 90 days, and an extended alert which lasts 7 years. If you file a fraud alert, be aware that it will make it more difficult for you to obtain credit, as the bureaus will require additional info to verify your identity before they will extend credit.You can request 1 free credit report per year per federal law at www.annualcreditreport.com, which is the official place to go, unlike what those annoying commercials will tell you. I cannot stress enough that you need to make sure to talk to all three bureaus as they all file and report activity differently and separately from each other, and credit checks can be run through any of them independently. I've included the contact information below for anyone who might need it.
Experian: 888-397-3742; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
Hopefully, this will all get taken care of sooner than later on Sony's end, but in the meantime, I sure hope this helps.
*Edited 4/03/11.
The PSN had been down since April 17th, with little to no information as to why. Rumors were abound as to the cause, and given the attacks by hacker activist group Anonymous the week before over Sony's treatment of Geohot (the guy who hacked the PS3 firmware), a lot of us figured it was an extended DDoS attack. Of course, the rumors of the involvement of a major hack and data breach started within a couple days, with Sony finally getting off their collective asses and admitting to an "external intrusion" as of April 22.
What kills though, much like the official Japanese reaction to the Fukushima disaster, was the lack of an admission of a problem from Sony. Sony didn't wind up warning their customers that there was a MASSIVE intrusion, and that MILLIONS of customers' personal information was compromised until April 26th, A FULL 10 DAYS after the incident happened!!! Especially with the speed that fraudsters can use your info (I have lots of personal experience - I used to investigate ID theft for T-Mobile), a delay like this is completely unconscionable!
Sony has now admitted via e-mail that "Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."
This is a scary amount of information in the hands of the wrong people, fraudsters who can do a frightening amount with very little personal information, and can use what little they have to get more. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security because credit cards "may or may not have been compromised". A tremendous amount of damage can be done without a credit card number.
What's frightening beyond this, is that Sony STILL doesn't know the extent of the breach, or if they do, they're playing those cards awfully close to the chest. When it comes to the level of comprised personal information that we see here, delaying the vital information to the victims is utterly unforgivable.
I, for one, have lost a great deal of faith in Sony, and am greatly considering whether or not I want to cull my PS3 from the herd, as it were. Ironically, I paid for my first subscription to Playstation Plus (Sony's equivalent to XBL Gold) on the day the network went down, and of course, there's no word in regards to compensation for the lost time on our subscriptions. At the very least, Sony needs to step up to the plate and provide credit monitoring for the people affected by their lack of security.
Now, if you're caught up in this debacle, try not to panic. It's going to be really important to take some simple steps to help get this under control. First, call your bank and advise them of the data breach. You'll want to ask them if there's been any suspicious activity on your account, and may want to go as far as getting a replacement debit/credit card, preferably with a new number. If, for whatever goofy ass reason, you chose to have the same password for your PSN account as the e-mail account you log in with, you're going to want to change that ASAP, along with any other important sites that use the same login/password combo. Next, you're going to want to check your credit report with ALL THREE credit bureaus for any suspicious activity, possibly even going as far as to request a fraud alert be placed in your file. There are 2 different types of fraud alert, an initial alert lasting 90 days, and an extended alert which lasts 7 years. If you file a fraud alert, be aware that it will make it more difficult for you to obtain credit, as the bureaus will require additional info to verify your identity before they will extend credit.You can request 1 free credit report per year per federal law at www.annualcreditreport.com, which is the official place to go, unlike what those annoying commercials will tell you. I cannot stress enough that you need to make sure to talk to all three bureaus as they all file and report activity differently and separately from each other, and credit checks can be run through any of them independently. I've included the contact information below for anyone who might need it.
Experian: 888-397-3742; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
Hopefully, this will all get taken care of sooner than later on Sony's end, but in the meantime, I sure hope this helps.
*Edited 4/03/11.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Back Cover Done!
I got the back cover copy text a couple days ago for Carmine, and spent a day cobbling together the individual pieces that I built in Illustrator. Got it done last night, and sent it off to the publisher. Of course, I received back edits on the copy text this morning, and realized, like an idiot, I had ultimately saved all my work from the previous day as a uneditable PDF. *sigh*
Anyway, spent this morning rebuilding the cover, but damn if it didn't come out looking nice! I'll make sure to post it up once I'm able. =D
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