The Porn Police, Spam Scams, Ignorance, and Your Alias

Awhile back a neighbor left a message on my phone.  She said that Microsoft had contacted her about the porn server that she was running on her computer and that she is now having to pay over $400 to have it removed.  Well I just laughed and thought, someone is going to straighten her out on this I thought, as it was so wrong that I didn’t even know where to begin to explain how impossible this was (I’ll explain that in a moment).  That is, I didn’t know were to begin to try to explain to someone like this who could not understand enough logic to fall for a scam like that.

It’s My Fault I Suppose

Her main concern for calling me in the first place is because I work with the local Internet ISP and service our local relay.  So she is thinking that it is one of our neighbors that is running this porn server.  The confusion just kept coming.  You see, they convinced her that this “porn server” it was not only on her computer but her router, her phone, and apparently someone close by was doing it.  And she bought what they told her.  She probably thought, and told everyone, that it was likely me running this porn server.  I mentioned earlier that it was impossible that this was going on here because I monitor and graph the local relay data, so I knew no one around here was running a server to any degree.

As Time Goes By

It turned out, as I found, that not only did her family and friends not set her straight on this but that they even thought it was legit.  They told me that this “Microsoft” had shown here the site she was hosting and after she paid them handsomely they showed her that it had been taken down.  Wow!  Again, I don’t even know where to begin to explain to these people that they are falling for a scam.

What’s Wrong Here

First, Microsoft is not the Porn Police.  They do not care if you are hosting pornography.  It happens.
Second, pornography is not illegal unless it’s child porn, then Microsoft does not email you about it — the FBI comes knocking on your door for that!  (As they should)
It needs also to be noted, if you haven’t realized yet, that this “Microsoft” is not the real Microsoft.   These are criminals scamming people.

The True Crime

By the time I did talk with her about this and told her that it is a scam and they are going to keep coming back to you in a few months because they got her to install a back-door for them to play with her computer (and because they have a sucker on the line).  She told me that they already have come back and that she, at that point, has paid them over $1500… for nothing but a scam.  I’m in the wrong business I thought.  This is child’s play to give someone the impression that they are running a porn server (or whatever) and give them an IP address for them to view it at to “prove it”.  Then just take down what you have put up in the first place — after they pay you.  This is the crime, not some porn server.

How Does This Work

Fear and intimidation my friends.  With a dash of embarrassment thrown in for good measure.  These leaches fish for people that will bite at their bait.  They bait you with something that you fear, or something that you are passionate about.  A nice housewife doesn’t want to be running a porn server does she?  Why she would pay good money to get that taken care of.  In ignorance and fear we act in haste.  She could have replaced all of the supposedly infected devices with new ones for less money then she paid these scam artists to supposedly remove the “problem”.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, they appear as legitimate corporations, institutions, or businesses.  This one posed as Microsoft.  You gotta trust Microsoft right?  But they are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Meanwhile

While I’m still not sure she believes me that she has been scammed.  It has made me aware of the vast ignorance of things Internet and how technology works.  Meanwhile those of us who understand that this “thing” that happened to her is not possible (in her case) and not probable in most cases.  Even if you were doing what they said, what is that to them?  After all, maybe you ARE running a porn server.  There are people doing that sort of thing on the Internet — so I’ve heard.

What To Do

First, do nothing.  Second, quit opening spam emails.  Third, get off the Internet.
If you’re not smart enough to know if you’re doing something or not, of if it’s even possible, then you should not even be on a computer or the Internet.

Okay, if you’re going to stay online then at least do these things.

     1) Create a pen name.  Spam and scams are the main reason I advise everyone to never use your real name on the Internet.  Only your online banking and very important stuff like that should know who you really are. 

     2) Get another email address to use with that pen name and use that for everything aside from your critical transactions like banking.  This way when you get seemingly important emails from your bank but they are not using your banking email or your real name, then you know it’s a scam.  It makes it simple.

Got It?

One of the first things you should do in these cases is to contact your local ISP (Internet service provider) and ask them if they know anything about it, or if it is even possible that it is going on.

Any questions?

How We View TV Today

While TV was once characterized by the medium from which it was delivered to us, a box with a tube, today that has all passed away just as the cassette and 8-track tape has for delivering us music.  The content is not what has changed, in the larger sense, it is the medium that has changed.  Today we get our music on CD’s or more often straight off the Internet from iTunes, Amazon, or some other digital service.  We don’t even have to purchase it today - we can stream it via Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, or one of the thousands of Internet Radio Stations.  Aside for the changes in genre’s our music is still… well… music — audio content.  

Content vs. Medium

In the last 10 years Television has taken a similar change from one traditionally referring to a picture tube in a box, to the content of visual information — the visual content.  Now one might still refer these two to an audio medium and a visual medium, but that is not so.  The medium is describing the means by which the content is delivered.  By definition the medium is the intervening substance through which the content comes to you.  So the visual medium is the way in which you get the content — the content does not change, the way we get it changes.

By Definition

TV is Television, by definition — Tele-Vision, Televised Vision, transmitted visual information, transmitted, transferred, delivered, via wire or wireless — delivered content to the receiver.  The term tele was first used before radio existed — telegraph.  It was transmitted via wires then wireless via radio waves.  It was a code (content) that was delivered to the receiver.  The propagation medium and the devices used in delivering and receiving that content have changed but the information or content are what has always been what we care about — not the means of delivery.  The message not the messenger is what is important.  The end game.

My Uses

I know for me, I haven’t watched a traditional TV for years, I still watch TV shows but I watch them online via the Internet.  YouTube is my major source for programming content, and I'd bet it's yours too.  Hulu, CBS, NBC, YouTube, I get it all online now.  The Internet is the new medium for TV.  It is way visual information is televised to us.  It is The New TV.

My Predictions

I foresee that the major TV networks will soon follow suit with HBO and Showtime who have followed Hulu and Netflix into the Interwebs and will have an App on your smart TV’s so that you can watch them through the Internet without cable, satellite, or terrestrial TV.  CBS has already made a major more in that direction, you can watch their programming online just like Hulu provides.  Ustream and YouTube, the pioneer of personal video content, is now more focused on video streaming and has given everyone the ability to broadcast on The New TV.

  

After all, you can reach them via YouTube.TV or Ustream.TV
You could say that they are now the first name in TV
Your Thoughts?...

Apple Takes a Stand for Our Privacy Rights

In his Feb 16th 2016 letter, A Message to Our Customers, Tim Cook CEO of Apple takes a stand against the FBI and warns us all about the threat to our personal security.

I applaud Tim Cook and Apple for standing up against the tyranny of the FBI, who’s trying to go back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover.  No, farther than that - the Nazi's.  These are Hitler tactics that bring upon us an Orwellian world.

It's not that I'm not expecting that it's going to soon come to that — it is.  But to have a conglomerate as big and as important as Apple stand up and say no more, is refreshing.  Again, I'm not one of those patriot types, not that there's anything wrong with that, (what gets wrong in that area is the nuts that get involved in it and tip the scales).  I don't listen to or support those guys.  I do however support Apple in its products, its philosophy, and its decision to protect peoples rights.

The problem with this issue has now become the spin that it is taking.  Many are making Apple say something that they did not say.  It’s what the FBI wants them TO DO, not what they have done to help the FBI that is the issue.

So many comments by uninformed, speculating people doesn’t help clear the issue either.  I am a programmer, coder, hacker (not cracker), whatever, so I understand what is at stake here and the ridiculousness of the justification.  That our security depends upon our insecurity — that’s insane.  If this ever gets to where the government has this control and has a back-door to our phones, then the very people they demanded they have it for — the ‘terrorists’, will be using something else to get their deeds done.

Having a back-door into iOS is inviting crackers (as most wrongly call them - hackers) to do unimaginable damage that Apple will have to try constantly to patch, like Windows has to.  Perhaps the only safe way around this is for Apple to go the Open Source route, like Linux, and make their iOS completely Open Source so that all it’s ins and outs are known.  While this may sound worse, what it does, and has done for Linux, is make the Operating System (OS) more secure against attacks because programmers know any possible back-doors and can fix them.  The opposite of this is best seen in Windows where only Microsoft knows its code.  So when a cracker exploits a hole in Windows code they have to patch it.  If they had the world of programmers looking at the code, like Linux does, then us good hackers could find the problems first and fix them.

I am reminded of the 2012 case against TrueCrypt where the FBI was unable to get past TrueCrypt's encryption.  “The court then ruled that Doe's Fifth Amendment right to remain silent legally prevented the Government from making him or her do so.”  TrueCrypt was shut down on the guise that it was, “not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues” and users were instructed to move to Microsoft's BitLocker.  One has to wonder if Microsoft's BitLocker is favored and not targeted by the FBI because they already have a back-door in BitLocker?

The forgotten issue.  There’s nothing saying that there is actually any useful information on this iPhone the FBI demands to get into.  By this time there’s no information on that phone that the leads have not been burned by the terrorists.  The FBI, and other agencies, would be better served by employing some crackers rather than looking for Apple and corporate business to do their work for them.  I don’t hear the CIA asking for this kind of technology…

Back to the issue at hand.  It’s not like you can’t jailbreak an iPhone today and bypass any of this ’spyware’.  So the tech is already out there, and used, that can thwart what the FBI is trying to mandate.  Again, it’s only going to be the ‘safe’ citizens that are getting spied on.  The old adage goes that, If you’ve got nothing to hide then what does it matter?  While that may be true — as long as you can trust who’s doing the spying.  Can you?  After all, that’s how George Orwell’s word got into being.  It’s all for your protection Winston.  (I'm wondering who the real terrorists are here...)

As My Cook said, "understand what is at stake".

Cyber Monday Deals

While some retailers pushed up their ‘Black Friday’ deals to Wednesday, and at least Thursday afternoon.  The cyber world (think Internet) has kept its tradition of Cyber Monday, since they figured you'd be in the stores Friday and not online.

The digital door-busters abound and perhaps this will be a good year for retailers as the economy and DOW have been stable recently and gas prices are falling.  It is likely that this illusion will cause us to spend more on the things that we want and think we cannot live without.

In the tradition of the non brick-and-mortar stores, all the major retailers also have their Cyber Monday deals online, one is even having a Cyber Week.

It's no surprise that the big online retailers like Amazon, TigerDirect, NewEgg, eBay, Sweetwater, zZounds, Overstock, and Engadget have deals on Monday.  Many of them have been posting deals the week leading up to Black Friday, and some will continue throughout the week with deals.

Since every major brick-and-mortar retailer in online, stores like Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, BestBuy, Staples, JC Penney’s, and other clothing outlets all have their Cyber Monday deals going on.

Remember the game - the best deals are limited to first come first serve.  They offer outrageous deals to get you on their site but you have to be early and quick.  Let the games begin!

Happy shopping

Stop Using Internet Explorer (IE) !!!

Why are people still using IE?  I’ve said this before.  I’ve said it for years…  Quit using IE!

If you’re using IE stop now!  If you do not have another Browser - that’s the thing your using now to view this page (I feel have to say that because I’m finding that too many people do not know basic terminology as to what they are doing today).

I’d also tell you what to do and where to go to download and install another browser but there again if you’re using IE you’re not likely to understand what I’m talking about.  Fear not.  I will provide you some links (the blue colored text below) that you can click on and will take you to where you can download a safe and usable browser.

Safe - because IE is known to be to porthole for viruses and many nasty things off the Internets.

Usable - because any (real) web designer knows that IE (Internet Explorer) is THE browser that does not render pages correctly and your code has to be ’tweaked’ to make it look somewhat like you intended it to, and what every other browser shows correctly.

You design in FireFox or Chrome, then you check it in IE to see how much work you have to do to fix it, or just care less because no sane web surfer would be using IE anyway.  When you find sites that only look correct in IE it is because the web designer does not know what they are doing and was using IE.  Go sit in the corner!

Chrome - Click on the blue button in the middle.
FireFox - Click on the green button that says Windows.

It's Black Friday - RUN!!!

It’s that time of year again.  Either you love it or hate it.

At least some of the major stores have decided to reduce the madness and trampling deaths by opening their doors early.   Radio Shack thought they would outdo them all by starting on Wednesday.  Wal-Mart started the savings Thursday (Turkey Day) afternoon.  Perhaps to eliminate the masses who were full from turkey and sleeping it off.

Every year we get further from the once long awaited day of savings, which soon became a day of madness.  Not so much anymore.  Now they try to spread it out or push it up to be the first store to get you in to by their specials.  It’s become a retail race for the retailers to be each other to the starting line.

When Black Friday first started retailers were only competing with each other, now the brick and mortar stores have massive competition with online retailers and even more so because many shoppers would rather escape the madness and shop from home online.  Are you one of those?  After all, here you are on the inter-web.

Practice safe shopping.

Let the games begin!

The Internet Is Broken — Should We Fix It?

There is too much data moving across the ether toady.  So much that it is overloading the entire system.  Bottle-necking.  You’ve seen it.  You know you have.  Things are loading slower.  You know it’s true but you do not want to admit it.  Else all your pet sites could be out of your reach.  Ahhhh!

Working with an ISP we have clients that will tell us that something is wrong with “our” Internet because they cannot load some file, "It's been stuck at 15% for an hour."  Meanwhile they are streaming videos or playing games online.  Logic, which I have come to the conclusion is nonexistent today, never enters their picture.  They are using megabytes of data over this ‘Internet connection’ but because they cannot get a simple 115kb file then something is wrong with their connection.  I don't even know how to respond to them anymore.  If your logic cannot sort that, what can I possibly say that can make them understand.

How did we get here?  Was it texting that took away our ability to hold real conversations with real people?  Was it reality TV that dumbed us down to believe that is reality and that we are not as dumb as those people?  (Yet we are the ones still watching them)

The Internet Isn’t Broke — We Are

No don’t fix the Internet, just walk away from it.  It has broke us.  We are paying the price everyday — mentally and physically.  The added stress and consumed hours that we spend online doing things that we do not need to do.  Things that 15 years ago were unheard of.  Are we any better of today?  Personally, computers have stolen more time and productivity from me in the last 15 years then I care to think about.  I was far more productive when there were fewer options.

"Then why don't you go back to that" I hear you saying.  I'm working on it.  Unfortunately, like many of you, what we have employed ourselves in has demanded that we are 'connected', and thus chained to our masters that promised us more time to do what we want, more productivity, and on.  Now that they have us in their grasp we find that they lied to us.  We power them, we give them energy — not just electrically but physically and mentally.  Yet we do not turn them on, the power switch is no longer ours — they turn us on.  They are our masters now, and we bow down to them.  After all, here we are.  Both you and I, on the Internet, on some computing device.  Sacrificing the time of our lives.

Technology in General is Broke

As ERM talks about in his post Technology takes a step backwards.